I'll Be Home For Christmas
by RatherBeAWriter
Summary: The festive season is supposed to be a time for family, but when a suspected abduction leads to all leave being cancelled, the team find themselves far from home and trying to solve a mystery that's troubled a small town for over a decade. In a dense, snowy forest it's a race against time to stop history repeating itself and to get everyone back where they belong for Christmas.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: A few years ago, I wrote a Christmas fic (JJ's Wonderful Life) and I enjoyed writing it more than any of my other stories, so when this idea popped into my head I had to try another one. I have written ahead with this one so am on track to post it gradually over the course of December. This is a case fic with some festive fluff and twists thrown in. Present day team but without Matt because I hadn't realised he was going to be a permanent fixture when I started writing and it seemed clumsy just to throw him in!**

 **I hope you like the idea and please review to let me know what you think.**

* * *

"Yes Ma'am. Yes. No, I understand. We'll be there by morning."

Emily ended her conversation with the Director and sighed as she turned her attention to composing a message to the team.

It had been going so well until late that afternoon. They had been back in town for almost two weeks and had managed to fall into a pattern of working that was as close to regular office hours as they could ever hope. They'd had time to buy Christmas presents and decorate their homes. They had even been around to witness the many sights of the training academy's Christmas party.

It had looked like they were on the home straight to spending the holidays with their families.

Until Emily had been passed a file that had caused her to hole up in her office instead of leaving with the others to celebrate the beginning of their leave. Rossi had noticed her hanging behind and had stuck his head round the door to check that nothing was wrong. She had assured him that she just had a few things to look over and then she to would be heading home. She had tried to convince herself that she was telling him the truth but even then she'd had a sinking feeling.

By the time Emily's growling stomach reminded her that it was getting late, she had already had one tense phone conversation with the Director. She had offered to head up a different team, if the bureau would supply her with some agents who were already on stand-by to work over the next week. She could choose to give up her own holiday plans but she would try everything she could to avoid the others being forced to do the same.

Her second conversation with the Director had put an end to any hope she'd been clinging to. This case needed specialists and the bureau would be doing a disservice to the people it was meant to protect if they "pulled together an untested assortment of agents at the last moment".

Emily knew the Director was right but she still hated to be the one giving the order to the rest of the team.

"Have a great Christmas," one of the last remaining agents on the floor called to her, noticing that the lights were still on in her office as he pulled on his coat to leave.

"You too," she responded, trying not to let the jealousy she felt find its way into her voice.

With another sigh she hit send and returned to the police reports on her computer screen. There was no point in moping over the Christmas which could have been. Especially when they had such an important job to do.

* * *

"'Do not be afraid,' said the angel. 'I bring good news'."

JJ grinned as Henry carefully recited his lines, his eyes fixed on the back wall of the auditorium, just as she and Will had encouraged him to do if the audience made him nervous. They had practised his part for the Christmas pageant so many times that the whole family knew every word, but Henry had spent the preceding hours becoming gradually more worried about messing it up. He didn't want to look stupid in front of his friends and being cast as the narrator of the Nativity came with a lot of responsibility for a nine year old.

Will nudged JJ's arm with pride as their son increasingly relaxed into his role. Neither of them could believe the time which had passed since he had been bumbling around the stage in a aluminium foil star costume.

Michael squirmed on her lap, his attention span for his brother's performance somewhat shorter than that of his parents. JJ adjusted her hold on him, reaching into her purse for the emergency juice box which she had packed for this very eventuality. Thankfully, he seemed in the mood to take the bribe, allowing her to turn her attention back to the stage, where the children were now in the middle of a chorus about there being no room at the inn.

Will gave her a look that was a more subtle alternative to a high five. Two children in and it finally felt like they were mastering stress free school concerts.

Unfortunately, JJ's next distraction proved to be a bigger problem than a restless toddler in need of some juice. She had thought her cellphone was on silent until the sudden, sharp noise, and accompanying panic to immediately silence it, caused her to jump.

Michael dropped his juice and began to grumble. Somewhere behind them another parent cleared their throat pointedly.

She frowned at the screen, her previous contentment sinking like a stone, as she took in the message from Emily.

Michael's grumbling edged dangerously closer to crying and she smoothed a hand over his hair, shushing him gently, as she tried to lean over to pick up his juice.

Will was better positioned to retrieve the dropped item, and he quickly had it in one hand, with his arms outstretched ready to take hold of his son. JJ turned to him, intending to quickly explain what was happening, but further coughs from the row behind made her think better of drawing out her exit for longer than necessary. In any case, she was pretty sure that Will knew what was going on. It wouldn't be the first time. She passed their son over to him, trying not to make more of a scene than they were already creating.

"I'm so sorry," she mouthed to her husband, grabbing her coat from the back of her seat and quickly pulling the remaining snacks and toys from her purse. She handed them to Will, who was well practised in the fast handover drill and was waiting to receive them. "I'll call you when I know what's happening."

She gave him a further apologetic look and he nodded, assuring his understanding, but nevertheless revealing a hint of annoyance. The man directly behind her coughed again, giving her a final warning that she needed to sit down or leave.

Michael was still grumbling as she slipped out the side of the auditorium, with one more quick glance towards her older son on the stage and her phone already pressed to her ear.

* * *

David Rossi folded the last edge of red paper into place and secured it with a piece of tape, before setting the parcel on top of the others stacked up on the table. He eyed the pile with a look of satisfaction that everything was in order for Christmas day. A chuckle came from the doorway.

"Kai was worried that Santa wouldn't find him here, but I don't think he needs to be!" Joy laughed.

Rossi shook his head but grinned back at her. Joy was already in her pyjamas, looking relaxed and settled in for her stay at her father's house. It was nice to see her looking at home here.

"He'll only be this young once," he responded. "If I can't spoil him now then when will I get the chance?"

In hindsight he had gone a little overboard but once he started shopping for boys' toys and gadgets he couldn't help himself. The box he had just wrapped contained a remote controlled helicopter. He would have loved one when he was Kai's age. Heck, he would love one now, and was excited at the prospect of taking it outside with his grandson on Christmas morning.

"Am I too old to be spoiled by my dad now?" Joy teased, rummaging under the Christmas tree to squeeze a present labelled with her name. She had been eyeing it up since she noticed it earlier in the evening, but had resisted in an effort to set a good example for her son.

"I'm sure Santa will be good to you too," he smiled, taking the present from her hands. "But you'll have to wait two more days to find out what's in there."

She pouted with part mock and part genuine disappointment.

"She's never been much good at waiting for surprises," Hayden warned with a laugh as she joined her daughter and ex-husband. She kissed Rossi on the lips, briefly. Their relationship was still shaky and undefined, but the spirit of the season and desire to have her family together was pushing her towards him.

"Mom, you're no better!" Joy protested. "You've already opened and re-wrapped your present from me and Shawn."

Rossi wrapped an arm round the woman at his side, enjoying the moment of closeness. Her expression was an attempt to claim no knowledge of her daughter's accusation.

"Your mom has form in that department," he told his daughter, chuckling. "Why do you think there's nothing for her under that tree?"

His cellphone vibrated against the table, and he reached for it, taking the opportunity to escape from the oncoming punch to his arm. Safe from Hayden's reach he continued.

"Over the years of knowing your mother I have learned that gifts have to stay out of sight if they are to remain a surprise."

Rossi's words trailed off as he read the message flashing up on the screen. Of course the evening had been going too well to continue.

"What's wrong, Dad?" Joy asked, frowning at the immediate shift in the atmosphere.

Hayden's expression changed to one he recognised from before their divorce. She didn't need his response to know what was going on.

"He has to work," she explained.

Joy's face mirrored her mother's disappointment, but with less bitterness than the older woman's gaze.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," he promised them, knowing from experience that those words just weren't good enough.

* * *

"I'm not sure about this," Spencer mumbled, taking his first, shaky steps towards her.

The air was cold and he could see his breath in front of him as he wobbled further onto the ice.

"You'll be fine. Just hold on to me," Garcia responded.

Tara and Luke watched smugly from the safety of the spectators area, clutching their hot chocolates and eagerly waiting to see Reid's debut on the ice-rink.

"I can't believe you haven't done this before," she continued, as he cautiously placed his hands in hers and shuffled forward.

"I've never understood why anyone would make ice more dangerous by strapping sharp blades to their feet," he replied, eyeing his own ice skates with suspicion.

"Come out a little further from the wall," Garcia coaxed.

Reluctantly, he inched slightly further from the safety of unfrozen ground. If he'd known that the trip to see the Christmas lights was going to involve skating as well, he might have thought better of joining them. Luke and Tara had been quick off the mark with their respective excuses of needing to stay with Roxy and an old ankle injury.

"You've got it," she grinned as he risked a longer stride.

Just as he was about to do the same with his other foot, a trio of teenagers whizzed by, causing him to freeze on the spot. Really, the ice rink should have been sectioned into areas by ability, or there were sure to be accidents.

"Why don't I go back to the side and let you skate for a while?" he suggested, trying desperately to unlock his knee without losing his balance.

She gave him a look which made it clear that giving up on this particular winter tradition wasn't an option.

But before he could receive any further encouragement, or before the teasing from the sidelines could commence, they were distracted, one by one, by the buzzing and pinging of their cellphones.

"So much for spending the holidays at home," Luke remarked, rubbing Roxy's head fondly. "I guess it's back to the sitter for you."

* * *

The message which had been received was one which, despite their reluctance to leave their families and plans, gave them all the motivation required to work through the entire holiday period if necessary.

 _ALL LEAVE CANCELLED._

 _SUSPECTED ABDUCTION IN RURAL MINNESOTA. 2 ADULTS AND 2 CHILDREN MISSING FOR APPROXIMATELY 24 HOURS._


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: A big thanks to everyone who read the last chapter. I hope you enjoy the story as it starts to unfold.**

* * *

It didn't take long for everyone to gather at Quantico to get up to speed on the case before they set off. The routine of dropping everything, grabbing a ready bag and returning to headquarters was one in which they were all very well rehearsed.

"How was Henry's play?" Emily asked JJ as she arrived, her voice already apologetic before her friend had even confirmed that she hadn't been able to stay for the whole thing.

"He was doing really well," she responded, with the hint of the proud smile she had worn as she watched her son on the stage. "Will's going to update me on the grand finale later."

"I'm sorry," Emily sighed. "I tried to call in another team but the Director wanted us on this one."

JJ shrugged and gave her colleague a knowing expression.

"I got to see some of it - that's better than other years. This is the job."

Emily wasn't convinced, but her apologies soon had another target.

"Did you get to see Kai and Joy?" she asked, as Rossi joined the team around the table.

He nodded.

"We had dinner together and I even finished my wrapping," he assured her, knowing she would be carrying a lot of unnecessary guilt for disrupting their plans. "All presents will be under the tree on Christmas morning, regardless of where I am."

"I really am sorry, guys," she apologised again to the whole group.

"Your timing couldn't have been more perfect," Spencer piped up, looking genuinely pleased to be back indoors and in his regular, flat shoes. "You've prevented me from becoming another statistic of holiday related injury."

Emily chuckled slightly, despite her low mood, at the visual of Spencer doing an involuntary impression of Bambi on ice. Before the seriousness of the case had become apparent, she had been disappointed that she'd had to stay back in the office and had missed out on experiencing that first hand.

"Emily, we all want to be here," Tara added. "The local police department must be concerned if they've called us in so quickly."

She nodded in response, pulling up the missing persons' photos on the screen behind her.

"This is the Berger family. They were reported missing by Mrs Berger's parents when they didn't show up at their house as planned this afternoon. The family should have been arriving for the holidays around 3pm. They were all at school and work yesterday but no one has heard from them since Mr Berger left the office around 6pm last night."

The team skimmed through the photos and background information on their tablets to get an initial feel for what was going on.

"I hate to state the obvious, but has it been considered that they might have gone elsewhere for Christmas voluntarily?" Rossi suggested. "It's a little extreme, but the prospect of spending so much time with the in laws can do strange things to a person."

"Are you speaking from experience?" Luke grinned, as the older agent seemed to shudder at the thought.

"That's exactly what the locals thought," Emily began, "when another family of four went missing from the same town 15 years ago."

She replaced the four photos on the screen with similar shots of another, strikingly similar family.

"The children are around the same ages," JJ commented. "And the parents worked similar, middle class jobs."

"Nice houses. Quiet lifestyles," Tara added.

"Were the other family ever found?" Reid asked, already pages ahead of the others in the information and puzzling at the inconclusive nature of the police file.

Emily shook her head.

"The case went cold years ago," she explained. "The bureau investigated at the time but didn't find any solid leads. There was some speculation that it could have been a murder-suicide - Greg Randall, the father, had been under a lot of pressure at work and he was known to have a temper - but no bodies were ever found."

"It has to be more than a coincidence that the disappearances have been at the same time of year," Tara thought aloud. "And that both families came from the same small town."

"That's exactly why they want us there as soon as possible," Emily continued. "The town is surrounded by dense forest and they've got a lot of snow at the moment so they aren't holding out much hope for the search parties returning physical evidence."

They all knew how difficult it would be to find anyone, dead or alive, in that kind of landscape. The task ahead of them seemed to be growing in its enormity.

"I hope you've packed warm," she concluded with a weak smile, trying to break the tense mood which was quickly descending over the team.

* * *

"Ok, you can have one candy cane, as long as you remember to brush your teeth before bed," JJ negotiated with her already hyperactive son. Will had struggled to get him to stay still for long enough to speak to his mother on the phone. "And be good for Daddy," she continued. "I'll see you when I'm home." She paused at the next question he asked. "I can't promise, but I'll do my best," she assured him. "I love you."

She ended the call and slid back into her seat on the jet. She'd taken the opportunity, while everyone was getting settled, to call home and check how the rest of the performance had gone. By all accounts, both from a very proud Will, and an excitable Henry, it had been a success. While she wished she could have seen it for herself, she could at least get on with the case in the knowledge that all was well at home.

"Is everything OK?" Emily asked as the blonde rejoined the group.

"All fine," she assured them. "Though I'm not sure that Will has enough energy left to deal with the boys until their sugar high ends." She turned her phone round to show the others the photo she had just received of her children pulling faces at the camera, with Henry still in his costume and Michael's face flushed pink with the excitement of staying up late with his big brother.

"It wouldn't be Christmas without exhausted parents," Rossi grinned, thinking of the tired look on Joy's face after an afternoon trying to keep Kai's over-excitement at a manageable level.

"Where were we with the Bergers?" JJ asked, keen to get back on track before she got caught up dwelling on what she was missing.

"Garcia?" Emily prompted the technical analyst, who had been working her magic with the background checks since they got on the plane.

Penelope looked up from her laptop to address the group. Given the remote location, and the possibility that their normal means of communication and research may be out of signal, she was joining the team in person rather than from her lair. The glittery Christmas tree decal on the lid of her laptop, however, confirmed that at least some of her "bubble of festive joy" was portable.

"They are your super normal, all-American, family of four," she responded. "I've dug deep but I can't find much that we didn't already know. Professor Sam Berger teaches English at a college. His wife, Laura, is a part time teaching assistant and spends the rest of her time cheering on the kids at soccer games and running an online book club. Hannah, their daughter, is eight, and the youngest, George, is five. Both kids go to the local elementary school. No issues noted in their school records. Mum and dad have one speeding ticket between them and no other criminal records. Social media profiles give the impression of a sociable and loving family."

"They might project the image of the perfect family, but we know that's not always the case," Luke responded, vocalising the thought that most of the team were thinking. "We could still be looking at mental health issues or tensions in the family coming to a head and leading to their disappearance."

While the previous family's disappearance increased the likelihood that there was something more at play, they all knew that they couldn't rule anything out at such an early stage in the investigation.

"The holiday season does have the potential to be a significant stressor," Tara added. "And the chances of developing symptoms of depression connected to seasonal affective disorder are much higher at this time of year."

Spencer looked thoughtful as he considered the possible explanations for a seemingly normal family vanishing at Christmas time. His mind stopped on the murder-suicide theory which had been adopted when the previous family disappeared.

"Interestingly, suicide rates don't actually go up in December," he told the others. "It's a common misconception that they do, but while the holiday season does come with a number of stressors, having relatives and friends around often acts as a protective factor."

As Emily responded, JJ found herself staring out the window, paying more attention to the wispy clouds in the dark sky, than to the continuing conversation. Their preliminary discussions, where ideas were bounced around, were an important stage of a case, but she couldn't help but focus her mind on the reality of what was happening. Regardless of the cause or motive, a family's plans for the holidays had gone horribly wrong. Whether the parents themselves were to blame or whether there was someone else involved, they would be arriving in a town where relatives and friends would see the FBI as hope that their loved ones would be coming home. The sad fact was that 15 years earlier that hope hadn't come to anything, and she worried that history would repeat itself.

They were under half an hour from landing and she was pouring herself another coffee, in preparation for the day ahead, when Rossi confronted her.

"Penny for them?" he asked, appearing behind her as she stirred the dark liquid in the mug.

"What?" she asked, slightly startled that she was no longer alone.

"Your thoughts," he responded. "The ones that have been occupying your mind since we set foot on this plane."

She smiled, knowing she would never get away with looking distracted without one of the team picking up on it.

"Are you missing Henry and Michael?" he guessed, partly projecting his own feelings about a Christmas away from home.

"I always do," she replied. "But it's not just that," she sighed slightly. "It's this case. The chances of us finding this family are getting lower already. Is it really worth all the sacrifice and false hope if we don't find them?"

"This is the job," he said, echoing the same response she had given Emily earlier. "We have to try."

She nodded, taking a sip of her coffee and trying to shake her pessimism.

"And it is the season of miracles," he added with a twinkling smile.

She found herself rolling her eyes slightly as a reflex, but inside a more optimistic part of her clung to the idea. Maybe, unlike 15 years ago, they would be just in time for a Christmas miracle.

* * *

It was still dark when they arrived in the small town which was at the centre of the investigation, but the couple of hours it had taken to drive from the nearest airport edged them closer to morning. The glow of coloured light from a large Christmas tree, at the centre of a small park, seemed to guide their way into the otherwise dimly lit town. Given the early hour, most homes and business premises were still in darkness. The only other exception to the dark was the Police Department. Every window of that building was lit brightly, and even outside there was a crowd of people bustling about with torches in hand.

"It looks like they're getting a search party ready for when the sun starts to come up," Rossi remarked, as their two SUVs pulled up outside the building.

The mass of police and volunteers, all bundled up in thick jackets and hats, were passing round whistles and maps. While they'd known that searching at night was too dangerous, it seemed that they weren't going to waste a second of light when it came.

Emily was the first out of the car she had been driving, zipping her jacket up to her chin as she stepped out into the bitterly cold air and led the way towards to the main entrance of the building.

"Agent Prentiss?" a voice called from a several feet away.

She turned to see a male police officer striding quickly towards her. He wore the a look of stress and responsibility that gave away his identity long before he introduced himself.

"Lieutenant Shaw," he continued as he reached the team. "We spoke on the phone."

"It's nice to meet you in person," she responded, shaking his hand before introducing the rest of the team.

"So you've already got search teams ready to head out?" Emily asked, taking in the level of organisation which was now apparent in what, from a distance, had seemed like a muddle of volunteers and people waiting for news.

He nodded.

"A lot of the people that live here remember the Randall family's disappearance. It shook the town for a long time and they don't want to see it happen again. It took a lot of persuasion to get them to hold off until dawn."

Emily nodded, understanding the situation.

"I'd like a couple of members of my team to join them when they head out," Emily advised, as Lieutenant Shaw turned to direct them inside.

"Of course," he responded. "Let me know if there's anything you need - we really appreciate you coming out here."

"It's no problem," Emily assured him. "We'll do whatever we can to help."

* * *

Once inside, the team were shown through to the conference room, which had been set up for their use. It wasn't the most high tech base they had ever used but it was far from the worst. The hard copy files relating to the Randall family's disappearance had been pulled out of storage, to supplement the electronic documents which had already been provided.

Shaw joined them around the table with a couple of his officers as they prepared to get to work. It was clear that everyone had been working through the night to reach the current level of information they held.

"Were there any suspects in 2002?" Alvez asked, noticing that only a few boxes of papers had been generated from the previous investigation.

"There was a sixteen year-old kid that had been seen arguing with Greg Randall the day before they disappeared. He had a paper round that covered the Randall's house and they made a complaint about him leaving the papers on the wet ground. He claimed it got him fired and threatened to kill Mr Randall. No one really thought he did it though," Shaw explained.

"Abducting an entire family takes a high level of organisation," Rossi noted. "You wouldn't normally get that with someone so young. If it was an abduction by someone else, we'd be looking at an older unsub."

"There was also some talk about Wendy Randall's father-in-law, Frank Lynch, being involved. He didn't like his son-in-law and made no secret of it."

"How old was he at the time?" JJ asked, considering the possibility.

"I think he would have been in his 50s," Shaw replied. "He still lives in the same house on the edge of town."

Given that the passing of 15 years would now put the man in his late 60s or early 70s, the team all shared similar doubts about his capability to take two much younger adults, and their children, without assistance.

"We'll need to speak with him, but if these current disappearances are an abduction, we would profile someone younger and stronger being involved," Emily explained. "Are the family of the Bergers still in town?" she asked, formulating a plan for how the team would start to dig deeper into both families and any potential suspects.

"Laura's parents are at their house," Shaw answered. "They wanted to stay and I didn't see any harm in leaving them there once forensics had finished."

Emily glanced at her watch. It was almost half 5, which meant that they didn't have much longer until the search of the forest would resume. The hours since the family were last seen were also ticking on. As soon as they were brought up to date on the current police investigation, and had the chance to review the file for the Randall's disappearance, they'd need to get out to speak to the family and community.

"Can someone help our technical analyst get set up?" she asked, knowing that whatever path the investigation took, Garcia would need access to all her own tools, and to the local police's systems. She suspected that the analyst would be able to find her own way in but was always reluctant to be so intrusive.

Shaw nodded, and asked the female officer beside him to assist. She got up and made her way round the table to where Garcia was unpacking her equipment.

"Tara and Luke, I want you to head out with the search party when they leave. JJ and Reid, I need you to head over to the Bergers' house after we've got up to speed here, and Rossi and I will visit Frank Lynch," Emily instructed. "We're at almost 36 hours since the last sighting of Mr Berger and we can't waste any time."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you so much for reading the last chapter and for your reviews, follows and favourites. On with the story...**

* * *

"The police said they had finished. We just wanted to be close in case there is any news," Elaine Lowe explained, as she led JJ and Reid into her daughter's house. "We haven't moved anything," she added, concerned that she had inadvertently hindered the investigation.

"It's Ok, Ma'am," JJ assured the woman. "We're just here to speak to you and have a look around."

As soon as they were ready, JJ and Reid had made their way to the Berger's house, which stood on the edge of town at the end of the main road. It was only 8am but the occupants of the house showed no sign of having been to sleep. Mrs Lowe had answered the door quickly, with an expression which showed equal measures of hope that the early morning callers would bring good news and fear of the alternative.

"They collected all the evidence they needed earlier," her husband added, emerging from the living room to greet the visitors. He was a retired Police Sergeant, and while his experience was with white collar crime, he knew the steps involved in a missing person's investigation. He'd spent the night reassuring his wife that everything the local police were doing was normal, while trying to block out his own negative thoughts. "Richard Lowe," he introduced himself.

"Agent Jennifer Jareau," JJ responded, shaking his outstretched hand.

"Doctor Spencer Reid," Spencer followed, as Mr Lowe directed them through to the living room.

"So, do you think this is connected to the family that disappeared in 2002? Are you looking for the same guy?" he asked, before the agents had even had the chance to sit down.

"It's a possibility," JJ confirmed. The whole town were asking the question so it was no wonder that the relatives of the missing family wanted it answered. "But there's still a lot more we need to look at."

As she took a seat, she noticed the welcoming feel of the room, which had been set up for a very different purpose than this. Someone had put a lot of effort into decorating it for the holidays. The Christmas lights around the tree, and entwined in an evergreen garland along the fireplace created an atmosphere which was at odds with the anxiety of the inhabitants.

"I can't bring myself to turn them off," Mrs Lowe remarked, noticing that both agents' eyes had lingered on the decorations. "They were on when we got here."

"I'll get them," her husband offered, adopting a more practical view than his wife. "And turn on a proper light so that these agents can see what they're doing. It's a wonder the police could see where they were going last night."

Mrs Lowe seemed almost horrified at the thought of changing anything about the room and shifted uncomfortably as he moved to get up.

"It's fine," JJ insisted. "We just want to speak with you about you daughter and son-in-law. We'll take a look around afterwards."

To the relief of his wife, Mr Lowe settled back down, leaving their daughter's home as untouched as when they had arrived.

"Go ahead," he told the agents. "We'll give you anything we can that will help you find them." He had been watching the clock as intently as the police and agents investigating the disappearance and he knew that time was against them. He'd also spent the night trying, and failing, to avoid the weather reports which showed just how low the temperature had dipped. Meeting with the FBI was finally something productive which he could do.

"When did you first start to think that there was something wrong?" JJ asked.

"When Laura didn't answer her phone," Mrs Lowe supplied. "She always picks up."

"So would it be out of character for her to take off without warning?" Spencer continued, thinking of Rossi's earlier remarks about a voluntary escape to avoid a family Christmas. The Lowes seemed like nice people but that didn't necessarily mean that they were the perfect in-laws.

"Yes," Mr Lowe responded immediately and adamantly. "She grew up in a town half an hour from here. She's never gone far and we never miss holidays together."

"Was there anything unusual about the way they were acting in the past few weeks next made you think there was something wrong?" JJ asked, mentally checking off the possibilities which needed to be explored. Her gut told her that someone else was involved but they had to follow procedure.

Mr Lowe sighed, irritated to be being asked the same questions which he had already answered. He wanted to help but the police already knew this.

"No, everything was fine," he insisted.

"We speak every couple of days," Mrs Lowe continued. "Laura and Sam were looking forward to visiting and the children were so excited for Christmas. They wouldn't just take off without telling us. Why won't anyone believe that?"

She was becoming visibly upset, the pulled together facade she had managed so far for the agents' benefit slipping quickly. She had been crying on and off for hours and she knew that once she started it would be hard to stop. Her husband reached out to take hold of her hand.

"They are a normal family," he explained, taking over from his wife. "Laura worries if Sam is late from work and he buys her flowers every time he's in the office past 7 to make up for it. They arrange play dates for the kids with the other families on the street. They have the occasional barbecue in the summer and invite the neighbours. That's as exciting as it gets."

His expression was pleading with them to accept that there was no dark secret behind whatever had happened to his family. JJ and Spencer could see there was nothing else to gain in pressing further on the point.

"Do you mind if we have a look around the house and outside?" JJ asked, with the intention of giving them some space. "We'd like to get an idea of their lifestyle and the neighbourhood."

The worried parents and grandparents nodded, relieved that they could take some time to breakdown alone. Only as the agents got up to leave the room, did Mrs Lowe look up from the section of carpet she had fixed her eyes on. Without warning, she reached out and took hold of JJ's hand, stopping her on the spot.

"Why did this happen to them?" the woman asked, her watery eyes meeting the blonde agent's just as suddenly as she had grasped hold of her.

In her surprise, JJ took a second before she was able to reply.

"I don't know," she responded, almost apologetically. "But we're going do everything we can to find out."

* * *

Emily and Rossi accepted the cups of coffee offered to them with grateful smiles.

"We appreciate you meeting with us," Emily thanked the elderly man, who sat opposite them.

"I hope I can help you. Do you think this is connected to what happened to my daughter and grand-kids?"

They were sitting at his kitchen table, where he had insisted on providing the agents with some coffee and toast, despite them politely declining his offer of a proper cooked breakfast.

 _"My wife would never have anyone in this house at a mealtime without feeding them,"_ he had told them, before going on to explain that she had died six months earlier.

"It could be," Rossi responded.

"So you don't think it was her husband?" Frank sighed. "Could it have been someone else?"

The man seemed distressed at the thought, though he gave the impression of someone who had considered every possibility before. Fifteen years was a long time without answers.

"I'm sorry," Emily replied. "We don't have a lot to go on at the moment. What made you blame her husband?"

He paused, obviously uncomfortable with the memory. It had been a long time since he'd had to think of the time he lost his family in this way. After years of pain he had learned that it was easier to focus on the memories he treasured rather than those which made the loss worse.

"Greg just wasn't good enough for her. He'd go in terrible moods and she was expected to put up with him until he snapped out of it. She deserved more than that. "

"Was he ever violent to your daughter or grandchildren?" Emily asked.

"She didn't say anything to me but if he was, she'd have told her mother." His face fell further as he thought of his late wife once again, and of the unhappy times his daughter may have experienced. "Let me show you a picture of them," he added, forcing a change in the direction of the conversation and already bracing himself against the table to get up before his visitors had a chance to respond. "I'll just be a second."

Emily and Rossi exchanged a look. In the short time they had been in his home the agents had learned two things about the man. For one, he was unable to sit still and was constantly fussing over something. For another, his love for his family and his need to avoid the pain of remembering what had happened to them was as real as they had ever seen.

Once he was out of the room, Emily turned to Rossi, recalling Shaw's earlier comment about the man disliking his son-in-law, but finding it hard to believe he could ever have harmed the rest of the family.

"He's not our guy," she said quietly. "Not in 2002 and certainly not now."

Rossi nodded in concurrence. Not only was Frank Lynch too frail, but his scattered approach and genuine concern for the current missing family set him far apart from the organised individual they were looking for.

"So we still have no suspects that match the basic profile," he replied, frowning.

"No," Emily agreed. "We need to find out more about the Randall family. Even if Greg was abusive or controlling, there's still something missing between that and the entire family vanishing without a trace. "

Frank returned before they could speculate any further on that possible link.

"Here they are," he said, proudly, passing the photograph to the agents, and carefully lowering himself back onto his chair.

Rossi and Emily smiled at the picture of a mother and her grown-up daughter from many years ago.

"You must miss them," Ross sympathised, and Frank nodded in response. The grief he felt for the loss of his wife was particularly raw, but the wound from the loss of his daughter and grandchildren had never fully healed.

"You can't let those other parents go through this," he told them. "You've got to find who did this."

"That's what we're trying to do," Emily assured him. "Is there anything else you can remember about your daughter and son-in-law before they disappeared." She was desperately searching for other suspects who may have been in their lives, or something that had been missed by those who investigated before.

The man hesitated for a fraction of a second but quickly recovered.

"They were a normal family," he replied. "She could have done better but they had a normal life," he insisted.

His hesitation hadn't gone unnoticed by the agents but they let it slide knowing there would be a better way in if they built up some more trust. Rossi picked up the photograph from where the older man had sat it on the table to take a second look.

"Tell me about your daughter," he said with a smile. "She looks happy here."

Frank nodded as he recalled the day the photograph had been taken. He lifted the coffee pot and topped up everyone's mugs without asking if anyone wanted more.

"She was happy," he confirmed. "That's how I remember her."

* * *

JJ and Spencer walked the perimeter of the garden which surrounded the house on all sides, taking in the neighbourhood and talking freely now that they were away from the relatives of the missing family. It had been a relief for everyone, even the agents, when they had stepped outside. They paused at the front gate, where the property bounded the main street.

"All the houses in this area overlook the street," Reid commented. "If someone was watching from here they wouldn't have gone unnoticed."

They were in agreement that if the family had been taken, without alerting the neighbours or leaving a trace in the house, they must have had some knowledge of both where they would find each member of the family and of the layout of the house and surrounding area. It also seemed unlikely that what appeared to be an organised abduction would have involved a random selection of victims.

"You can't see into the house very well from here either," JJ added, her gaze turning to the side of the building and the woods which lay beyond. They made their way up the slope of the drive to reveal a much better vantage point over the back yard. It was still too exposed to be used by anyone lurking around the , but just over the low fence, under the cover of the trees, the view would be much the same.

JJ climbed over the fence and carefully picked her way through the banks of snow and tree roots until she was a few rows back into the forest, to test the theory.

"Would you notice me here?" she called to Reid.

He shook his head.

"Not if I wasn't looking for you," he responded. It was plausible that someone could have remained hidden if visibility was poor or if the family were occupied with what they were doing.

She moved back to join him in the yard, looking down to where a snowman stood next to a swing set. A few feet away were the remains of an igloo, built during an earlier snowstorm, half melted and then covered in a fresh blanket of white.

"It looks like they've spent time outside recently," JJ commented. "This is a safe community. They wouldn't be watching for anyone, but someone could easily have been watching them."

She shuddered slightly at the thought of the family playing in the snow as the unsub watched on. The house was in the perfect location for someone to observe their routines and find a way in.

"There's a good view into the living room too," Reid noted, as he worked his way further down into the yard, sticking close to the fence that edged the trees. He suspected that a clear view of the woods was one of the reasons for the design of the low fence and large windows, but doubted that the occpuants had considered who may be looking back at them.

JJ joined him, to see Mr and Mrs Lowe still sitting side by side on the couch where they had left them. The glow from the lights on the tree was somewhat dulled by the increasing daylight, but other than that, the scene remained the same. She'd seen countless families trapped in the horrible limbo of waiting for news and it never got easier. The time of year, and the fact that everything else around seemed to be screaming of cheer, just made this case feel worse than normal.

"We need to find their family," she thought aloud.

* * *

"How did we manage to draw the short straw with this assignment?" Luke asked Tara, as he stamped his feet and blew on his gloved hands against the cold. It was now daylight and they had been outside, moving between the different search teams for just short of two hours.

"Well, Prentiss did warn that she'd get you back for the snowball incident in New York," she reminded him. "But it is unfair that I've been dragged along with you."

Luke laughed, recalling the moment that the snowball, which in his defence had been aimed at Spencer, had collided with the back of his boss's head. He probably did deserve her revenge.

Their task was an important one, as there was a good chance that a suspect could emerge among those helping with the search for the missing family, but that didn't mean that it was pleasant. Even now that the sun was in the sky, the temperature was still a number of degrees below freezing.

"The chances of anyone surviving a night out here are almost non existent," Tara commented, turning serious. "The locals must know that if they find anyone this is likely a recovery mission."

Luke frowned as he took in the lines of ordinary people pouring over every inch of ground in front of them. His colleague was right.

"They want to bring them home either way," another voice remarked, as they were joined by Lieutenant Shaw. He had just driven up from the town to check how the search was going.

"We understand," Luke assured him. "The community must be close here."

Shaw nodded, as he unscrewed the lid of a steaming flask, and produced a stack of paper cups.

"Hot chocolate," he explained. "Work like this needs something sweeter than coffee. And my wife tells me the caffeine isn't good for my blood pressure," he added with a grin.

Before he'd had the chance to pour the first cup, all three were distracted by a barking dog and shouts from the bottom of an embankment of trees. Taking care over the slippery terrain, they made their way quickly towards the centre of the commotion.

"What have you got?" Shaw called, taking the lead as he descended to the area where a group of officers were standing around the barking animal.

"One of the cadaver dogs is going crazy," the handler explained, in case anyone had failed to make the connection.

The snow fall over the area of ground beneath the dog was lighter than elsewhere in the clearing.

"It looks like the ground has been cleared recently," Luke commented, accidentally skidding the last few feet down the slope and offering Tara his hand to prevent her doing the same.

"Get it marked out, photographed and then cleared," Shaw instructed. "Quickly!"

His men acted fast, understanding the added pressure of being surrounded by so many onlooking civilians. The groups had stopped their meticulous combing of the land and were now surrounding the clearing.

"Get them back behind a cordon," Shaw added, more quietly. "None of them need to see this." He hoped that what they were about to uncover wouldn't be what he was anticipating but experience had taught him to prepare for the worst.

The snow was quickly shovelled away, and the crowd pushed back.

"The ground's frozen solid," the officer who first struck soil announced. They'd need to thaw it carefully to reach whatever lay beneath.

"It would have been very difficult for someone to bury a body in frozen ground," Tara observed. "And that earth looks too compact to be as recent as yesterday."

Luke confirmed his agreement, but found his attention drawn to a stone at the far side of the area which had been cleared. He indicated to the photographer as he moved to brush the snow away.

"It looks like a marker or make-shift head stone for the grave," he commented, dusting off the white covering and revealing the remains of a rose resting on top of the stone. "This has definitely been here longer than the Bergers have been missing."

"I'll call the others and let them know what's going on," Tara advised. "If that dog's right then, regardless of who it is, we've got a body."

* * *

Emily returned to the room with a sombre expression on her face, which didn't go unnoticed by her colleague or by Frank. They had been deep in conversation about his grandchildren and the time they'd spent together in the winter before they had disappeared. Emily had lauging at the story of their collapsing gingerbread house when her phone rang. The woman who had left the room was very different to the one who had returned.

"What's happened?" Frank asked. "Have you found that family?"

"The police have found a grave near where they were searching," she explained. With all the onlookers, it wasn't exactly secret and the news would be widely known before long.

The man's face fell and she realised that, despite everything, he had been through he was still hoping for good news.

"We don't know if it's connected yet," she continued, though she knew that the chances of an unrelated body being found in the area were slim. "And it looks like the grave might have been there for a while."

Frank stepped backwards, gripping the arm of his chair as he sat down more heavily than he had intended. For fifteen years he had wanted answers, but now that there was a chance he would get them, he wasn't sure that he was ready.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Better late than never, here is the next chapter. Thanks for reading and reviewing.**

* * *

Emily returned to the living room with a glass of water and found Rossi still crouched by the older man's armchair. Frank remained as pale and shaky as when she had left the room.

"Are you sure you don't want us to call someone?" Rossi asked, sharing a worried look with Emily as she passed the glass to Frank.

They had been ready to call an ambulance when he had slumped back in his chair, but he had insisted that all he needed was a moment to sit down.

"I'm fine," he maintained. "You just took me by surprise with that news."

He was gathering his thoughts slowly and trying to ignore the new feeling gathering in his chest. It was the same kind of tightness that he'd felt for months following the night that he and his wife had reported their family missing. The sense of dread was quickly becoming deep set. He just knew that this grave had something to do with them.

"She broke her arm horse back riding when she was fourteen - she's got three pins in her right elbow. And Ellie has caps on her front teeth from when she stood too close to the batter in a baseball game." He paused, trying to recall if there were any distinguishing features which could identify his son-in-law or grandson. "Greg broke his leg once and it healed funny." He paused again, really struggling to think of anything about the youngest of the family. "Cody's so little. He's just a little boy."

For a moment, Emily felt a similar crushing sensation in her own chest.

"We don't know that it's them," she attempted to reassure him, but he simply shook his head. Now wasn't a time for hope. He couldn't take hearing bad news if he allowed himself to believe it could be anything else.

"Will you tell me as soon as you know?" he asked.

"Of course we will," Rossi agreed, the distance from his own daughter and grandson hitting home and catching him off guard.

As they left the house to head back to the police department, having ensured a neighbour was nearby should Frank need anything, Emily noticed her colleague's pre-occupation with his phone. While Rossi was not adverse to technology, it was unusual for the device to be glued to his hand.

"Is everything OK?" she asked, mindful of that fact they had all been dragged away from their own families with little warning.

"It's nothing," he responded, reluctant to bog her down with details of his personal life. His phone vibrated again and she widened her eyes knowingly, refusing to accept his dismissive response. "Hayden and Joy are just struggling to explain what's happening to Kai. He thought he would be spending Christmas with me and he's confused at why that isn't happening any more."

Emily looked sympathetic. It couldn't be easy for a young child to understand, especially one that wasn't used to family members disappearing for work in the way that children of the team tended to be. At least JJ had the advantage of Henry and Michael being used to it.

"Why don't you call him? It might give him some reassurance that you would be there if you could," she suggested. "I'll wait in the SUV," she added, indicating that he would have some privacy and knowing it was the only way he would do so. The call wouldn't take long and it was the least she could do for him.

He nodded, appreciating the opportunity, and walked a little further down the street, while she climbed into the car and turned on the heat. She tried not to watch him but couldn't help but notice the uncharacteristic agitation in his pacing. Despite having done it for years, even Rossi was struggling with missing this holiday with his family. The impact of this case was extending far beyond the immediate victims and she wasn't sure how to stop that.

* * *

JJ and Reid were at the far end of the Bergers' yard when Emily contacted them with an update on the discovery in the woods. They hadn't even had the chance to consider what they might say to the Lowes when Mrs Lowe emerged from the house and came running down the snowy lawn.

It seemed that the news had reached her even quicker than it had been shared between the BAU.

The woman moved faster than they would have expected of someone her age and she seemed not to notice the cold and wet against her shoeless feet.

"Is it them? Have you found them?" she shouted, coming to stop only when she collided with JJ's arms. "Please," she pleaded.

The force had almost knocked the blonde agent from her feet but she reacted quickly to comfort the other woman.

"We don't think that it's them," JJ explained. "But we can't be sure until the crime scene investigators have processed the area." She gripped onto the woman's arms, steadying her body against the panic.

"When will you know?" she pressed.

"It shouldn't be long," JJ assured her, rubbing her arm gently. "Why don't we go back inside and talk?" she suggested, knowing that if she was feeling the cold beneath her many layers of clothing, then it wouldn't be long before the woman, in her light blouse, was frozen through.

Mr Lowe echoed the agent's idea, as he joined them in the garden. Unlike his wife, he had paused to put on shoes and a coat before rushing outside, and had also grabbed an extra layer for her. He draped the coat around her shoulders, taking over JJ's role of keeping his wife upright for a moment, before directing her back to the blonde.

"I'll be with you in a moment," he advised, turning to Reid purposively.

Reid nodded in understanding, as JJ led the woman back indoors, carefully guiding each step to counteract the effect her numb feet were having on her balance.

"If it is them you need to tell me as soon as you know," he told the male agent sternly. "They've only been missing a short while. If you find a body I know that you'll be able to tell if its them."

He didn't need platitudes and sympathetic gestures; he needed answers. And he wasn't getting them quickly enough.

"With the outside temperatures, the ground will have been frozen solid for over a week," Reid explained, giving the man an explanation for their doubt that the grave contained his family members. "We think it's more likely that it's been there since before the snow got heavy."

The older man considered the information and then let out a breath that he'd been holding for a second too long. It made sense to the rational part of his brain, but to the part of his mind which would have followed his wife, shoeless into the snow, he still needed more.

"Where are they?" he asked. "You're supposed to know how this man's head works. Where has he taken my family?"

Reid collected his thoughts before responding, eager not to irritate the already aggravated man but also not to mislead him.

"We're still working on a profile but we're making progress," he explained. "And the local police are doing everything they can."

Mr Lowe glanced towards the edge of the woods, staring an nothing in particular.

"I'm going to join the search party," he stated, leaving Reid unsure if he was responding or if he hadn't heard a word at all.

* * *

The process of digging further into the frozen grave was a lengthy one, but with a tent erected to give some privacy, the forensics team got to work. Tara and Luke stayed nearby, observing the thickening crowd and waiting for news.

"Do you think it could be one of the Randalls?" Lieutenant Shaw asked, as they walked a little deeper into the woods. They were looking for any sign that someone had been nearby but also keeping moving to avoid the cold settling in. "I know the grave looks fresher than 15 years old, but could someone really have had them all this time?"

Over the past hour, his patience had been wearing visibly thin and, in his determination to make progress, he had started to press the team with the same questions as the civilians.

"That would be rarer than an unsub who kills his victims soon after abduction, especially as there were adults involved, but it's not completely unheard of," Tara replied. She and Luke had already discussed the possibility and it was a theory which they hoped the contents of the grave would either support or disprove.

The lieutenant crunched further ahead before picking up a stick and knocking it against a nearby tree in an unexpected outburst of frustration. A powdery shower of white fell around them and he tossed the stick aside.

"Most of the kids round here have grown up thinking there's a bogey man in the woods. The story goes that he took one family and now he's on the hunt for more. Does a woodland monster fit your profile?"

The agents were momentarily taken aback by his new, aggressive attitude. Until now, he had been nothing but accommodating. Taking in the surprised expressions before him, his face quickly returned to normal.

"I'm sorry," he apologised with a sigh. "I just need to get to the bottom of this."

"We understand," Luke assured him. "But maybe you should take a break." He had watched colleagues work until they burnt out, both in the forces and the bureau, and it never brought good results.

Shaw snorted at the thought, muttering about how much had to be done. If his response had needed validation, it received it, when one of his officers approached calling him back to the grave.

"We've got a coffin. Thought you'd want to be there when they open it," the officer advised his boss and the FBI agents.

Tara wrinkled her nose involuntarily at the thought, not sure she was grateful for the police extending that particular invitation, but knowing it would take them one step closer to finding out what was going on.

"Come on," Luke encouraged, with a grin. "I'd say this will make us even with anything I might have done to Emily."

* * *

It was lunchtime by the time the team had regrouped at the Police Department. In the conference room, now strewn with soda cups and containers of half eaten Chinese food, they were pulling together the threads that the morning had given them. While the others had been away, Garcia had worked her magic in building their base and had managed to acquire enough screens and whiteboards to lay out all she had found on their victims. The current images on the central screen were, however, far from her liking.

"The medical examiner reckons the body's been in the ground for a few weeks," Luke explained, switching the previous image of the rudimentary, wooden coffin, for that of its contents.

Penelope dropped the beansprouts and noodles from her chopsticks back into the container as she screwed up her face.

"You need to give some warning when you're going to do that!" she chastised, pushing the food into the centre of the table, having suddenly lost her appetite.

"Was the coffin not enough to give it away?" Luke asked, teasingly.

"At least you didn't have the smell," Tara added, shuddering as the memory of the scent was enough to bring it back to her nose. "Or the maggots."

Garcia shook her head, pretending not to be seeing the image or hearing anything her colleagues said.

"Go on, Luke," Emily prompted, pushing her team back on track and saving their technical analyst any further distress.

"There's no obvious cause of death but the medical examiner thinks it's a woman in her forties. The coffin was made of old planks and it had let in a few more bugs than normal so we don't have an ID yet," he continued, before minimising the image and replacing it with a less repulsive view of the area surrounding the grave.

"If the ME's right then that could be Wendy Randall," JJ suggested, vocalising just what Emily was thinking.

"Wendy Randall's dad gave us some information that could be used to identify his family. I've passed it to the ME's office," the brunette confirmed.

It was rare that she wanted to find an additional victim, but Emily really hoped that the evidence was pointing them in the wrong direction. She wasn't sure she had it in her to see Frank Lynch's fears confirmed.

"If it's Wendy Randall then it's likely she's been with our unsub since she disappeared. We're looking for someone sophisticated enough to keep at least one adult alive and hidden for over a decade. And that area of the forest is only a mile from town - it's not too far off the beaten track. He has to have knowledge of the area to go undetected," Rossi pointed out.

"So we're looking for a man in his 40s or 50s, who has local knowledge," Emily summarised, combining the new element with their earlier attempts at a profile. "Could we be looking for someone that was in Wendy's life?"

The assumption that they had found the first missing mother was hard to avoid.

"Building a coffin, digging a proper grave and placing flowers by the headstone show care for the victim," Reid added. " It's as if he's grieving. It could be an old school friend, or a colleague or boyfriend. She grew up nearby so the people in her life would have knowledge of the area."

"Garcia, are you ready to dig even wider and deeper?" Emily asked, formulating her next strategy for the team.

"I was born with a digital shovel in my hand," she confirmed, her spark returning now that their were no dead bodies to cloud her sight.

"We need details of any men who were in her life that fit our profile," the team leader continued. Garcia nodded, her fingers poised above her keyboard. "Tara and Luke, since you've spent most of the morning outside, you get to stay in the warm this time and help her," she added with a smile.

She might be relatively new to the job, but that didn't mean she wasn't aware of the jibes, however light hearted, about who got stuck with the worst assignments. When it came to freezing in the snow at a disposal site she was all about equal opportunities for her team.

"Reid and JJ, can you head up to where the body was found and keep an eye out? Just because our unsub has gone unnoticed, it doesn't mean he won't be blending into a crowd. If he's been mourning at that grave and now we've disrupted it, then his behaviour might change."

JJ and Spencer nodded, beginning the process of wrapping themselves up before heading outside.

"ME's office?" Rossi guessed as they others got to their assignments.

Emily nodded.

"We need to see how they're getting on with cause of death. It'll give us a better idea of what we're up against."

"And we might be able to confirm her identity," Rossi added, knowing Emily shared his determination not to break the promise they had made just hours before, however hard that might be.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Once again, thank you for reading and reviewing the last chapter. Here's a nice long one as a Christmas treat!**

* * *

As they drove the mile and a half out of town, to where the search of the forest had re-commenced, JJ and Reid were aware that the light was very much against them. It was two thirty in the afternoon and the sun was already on its way down. The drive itself, while not far in distance, was taking longer than anticipated as JJ kept her speed down over the new layers of ice which were forming on certain patches of the quiet road. After leaving the main road she had realised that the forest quickly became dense and that the little sunlight which had melted the snow and ice elsewhere hadn't managed to fight its way through.

They wound in and out of the trees in almost complete silence as she concentrated on getting them to their destination in one piece and he focused on the highlighted maps spread across his lap.

"If the unsub came up this way with the Bergers he must have had them in a truck or some kind of 4x4 of his own," JJ remarked after several minutes of quiet, and as she took a particularly treacherous bend. "Their cars would never have made it up here."

Reid clutched the maps, trying not to drop them as the car drifted a little further across the road than JJ would normally have liked.

"I've been marking out areas which could be inhabitable but are far enough off the main trails to be hidden. Given the location of the grave and the limited routes with access to the main road, it seems most likely that this is the correct area," Reid advised. "If he's been holding a family for 15 years they'd need access to food or medical supplies at some point over that time. If his plan was always to keep them alive then it wouldn't make sense to be too remote, especially with the harsh winters."

"They'd need more than a makeshift shelter to survive that amount of time," JJ added. "Are there any properties in the area?"

Reid shook his head.

"There are a few old hunters' cabins but nowhere that's on the map or connected to the grid. Garcia is going through satellite images to get a better idea of what's out there beyond the main routes."

Once they had pulled in at the side of the road, behind the other vehicles that had braved the terrain to bring the local law enforcement, paramedics and civilians up to the area which surrounded the disposal site, JJ took a look at Reid's maps. Even with the information they had, and with Garcia's help from back in town, there was still a lot that was unknown about the area and about their unsub. The bare bones of a geographical profile wasn't going to get them as far as they needed to go.

"Let's hope he's making himself at home in the search party," she said, unsure of how else they might get closer to their unsub before the dark hindered the investigation for a second night.

* * *

Pre-warned by Tara and Luke, Rossi and Emily were prepared for the sights and smells which awaited them at the morgue. Just as the medical examiner's assistant showed them to the room where the autopsy was being carried out, they popped the sticks of extra strong gum into their mouths. Emily passed the packet back to Rossi with a grateful smile before the assistant introduced them to his boss.

"We're sorry to interrupt you," Emily apologised once the introductions were out of the way. "We were just hoping you might be able to help us with cause of death or even confirming who she is."

The ME was understanding of the urgency in making progress with the investigation. She had seen enough tragic deaths in the past few weeks and could only hope that the missing family wouldn't be added to the list.

As the agents gathered around the desk at the side of the room, she pulled up a series of x-ray images, quickly confirming the news they had been anticipating.

"This is an x-ray of her right arm. We'll check the serial numbers to be certain but from the medical records I'm confident that your victim is Wendy Randall."

Emily looked at the metal hardware, clearly visible to even the untrained eye, and knew that there was little doubt. There couldn't be many missing persons with the same injury and repair.

"What about cause of death?" Rossi asked.

The ME led them over to the table and pulled back the sheet which had been temporarily covering the body while she stopped to speak with the agents.

"It's hard to tell with the decomposition changes but I haven't seen any signs of trauma. You'll see that apart from the post mortem changes, the skin is intact and largely unmarked. I don't know that we'll be able to establish an accurate cause of death."

"But you've found something?" Emily prompted, sensing there was more to come.

The ME nodded and continued.

"While there's no sign of intentional injury to the brain, I have found a large tumour in the frontal lobe and evidence of metastases elsewhere. In my opinion, the condition would have been terminal."

Emily and Rossi exchanged a look of surprise. They had been prepared to have the identity of the victim confirmed and were prepared to hear any number of injuries which could have killed her. But they hadn't been expecting that.

"Are you saying that she could have died from natural causes?" Rossi asked.

"She may have done. We'll have a better picture once the test results are back and I've finished the autopsy, but at this stage I'm not sure that we're looking at a homicide."

After the remainder of her findings had been explained, the agents thanked the medical examiner for her assistance, before leaving the morgue with some of the answers they had come for, but also with a whole host of new questions.

"We've profiled someone who cared or showed enough remorse to give her a proper burial, but what if he cared for her in life too? Her death would be a significant stressor and could explain why he has chosen now to take another family," Emily speculated aloud, as they headed out of the building and back to the SUV.

"If his grief is real then his organisation might start to slip, especially if he knows that we've disturbed her grave," Rossi added.

Emily frowned, knowing the difficulties that might cause. While disorganisation meant that the unsub was more likely to get caught, it also came with a greater risk to his latest victims and that wasn't what they wanted to see.

* * *

The orange glow from the sun was now lying flat with the horizon and not much progress had been made in the time since JJ and Reid arrived. The search party, organised into separate units and still under the supervision of Lieutenant Shaw, had covered a reasonable amount of ground but no further discoveries had been made.

The two agents had been working separately since they arrived, joining the officers in overseeing the search and, more importantly, those who were involved. They had seen nothing which gave them any cause for concern. No one stood out as being either overly invested in the investigation or lurking on the fringes. Now, as the light faded, they were assisting the officers with rounding up the volunteers and ensuring they returned to safety. There were more than a few who had been willing to stay out into the night, but Shaw made it clear that he was not allowing any of them to put themselves at risk.

JJ and Reid rejoined one another at the north edge of one of the search zones, where Reid had been convincing two men to return to town and start again in the morning. It was disheartening and frustrating to have to leave but he knew that they weren't going to achieve anything in the dark. It was already getting more difficult to see and they were using flashlights in the areas where the screens of trees were densest.

"That's the last of the volunteers from this section heading back to the road," he updated his colleague as they met. "We should call Emily and let her know we're on our way."

JJ nodded, reaching for her cellphone and immediately noting the lack of service. She turned the screen for Reid to see and he quickly realised he was in the same position.

"We'll call her from the road," JJ decided, keen not to be separated from the group. She may have lied about her reason for being scared of the woods in the past, but that didn't mean that it wasn't creepy out here at twilight.

"Wait, what was that?" Reid asked, turning to look down the slope to their right side.

"That isn't funny, Spence," she chastised, after humouring him for a second but hearing nothing. With Morgan gone, he had fallen into a pattern of picking up the slack on the practical jokes front.

"No, I saw someone down among those trees," he insisted pointing to where he was sure there had been movement.

Still a little unsure if he was teasing, she fell silent again for a further few seconds. At a crunching noise from below, Reid indicated that JJ should turn off her flashlight and step back, further under the cover of the trees. She obliged, her hand hovering over her holster as the feeling of unease grew.

"There," Reid mouthed, nodding towards a small clearing where the figure of a man could be seen at the far side. As the man turned, it was evident that he was holding the hand of a child. While there were nearby hiking trails, neither of them could imagine why someone would have their child out somewhere so remote in the cold and impending dark. They were too far away to be sure if it was one of the Berger children but were agreed that something felt off.

Slowly, they started to descend the slope to move closer to the pair, hands close to their weapons as they moved. The man was showing something to the girl, pointing up to the sky and facing the opposite direction from the agents. While the snow made the descent more difficult, it also softened their footsteps, giving them more cover than if they had been crunching over the twigs. They had almost reached the clearing, and were close enough to confirm that the child was a girl, when Reid tripped over a partially buried tree stump and tumbled the remaining few feet to where the ground levelled out.

He let out an involuntary shout as he came to a stop in the snow and his knee hit something hard.

The man turned at the commotion, startled for only a second before he started to move.

"Stop! FBI!" JJ shouted, picking up her pace as the man grabbed the girl's arm and started to run. Briefly, she glanced back to Reid to check he was OK, but he had waved her on and was already getting back on his feet so she didn't stop.

JJ ran on, less cautious over the uneven and slippery ground that she had been all day despite her colleague's experience. There wasn't much distance between them and the girl was slowing the man significantly. She stumbled behind him, her legs too short to keep up with his speed. Her feet slid over the partly frozen snow as she was dragged along. Her hat fell off, revealing blonde hair which matched the current description of Hannah Berger.

It hadn't even crossed JJ's mind to fall back and give them space. She just kept going. Reid, having picked himself up from his fall, was closing in and providing her with back up. They couldn't see a weapon on the man, and even if there had been, they had the upper hand in their current position. Neither of them anticipated the danger that lay ahead. They could hear the water, moving with enough force to stop the river freezing over, but it seemed far enough away that it wasn't an immediate concern. Even as the rushing of the water grew louder they didn't think much of it. Not while they were all on solid ground.

But when it happened, it was as though time slowed to a pace where they could notice every little detail.

The girl fell hard, a shriek escaping her mouth as her legs slipped over the edge of the steep embankment. Their proximity to the water had been hidden by the thick evergreen foliage which had been on their right side since leaving the clearing, but now it had been revealed. Her arm was tugged sharply in the man's attempt to keep moving forwards and to pull her back up. He had to stop as she turned to a dead weight attached to his hand. Even ten minutes earlier, she would have done anything to get away, but now she clung on tightly.

JJ, who was now near enough to engage with them, but still too far to help, saw the girl's free hand scrambling for something to hold but finding only snow.

The man had a choice. The girl was a petite eight year-old and he was almost six foot tall. Pulling her to her feet was well within his strength.

JJ slowed, Reid mirroring her only a little further behind, as they held their weapons steady, trained on the girl's captor. Now they knew that they couldn't make any sudden moves.

"Stop," JJ repeated her earlier command. "You're not going to outrun us."

She was right and she saw the recognition of that fact flicker across eyes. He couldn't outrun them without a head start and certainly not with a child in tow.

His decision was made and he had released his hold on her hand and pushed her away before the agents knew what was happening.

A further shriek.

A sickening splash.

JJ stood just feet from where he had been as he took off into the trees. Beneath her a green coat was being tossed around in the current with its inhabitant unable to fight the motion. The fall hadn't been from a great height but the girl had been pushed downstream quickly. For a moment, still shocked by what had happened, she didn't know who to follow, but by the time Reid had caught up, instinct had kicked in.

* * *

It was a job that could, and probably should have been done by one of the local officers, but neither Emily or Rossi had any doubt about where they were going when they left the Medical Examiner's office. At a time when it already seemed that they were so far from being able to help anyone, they weren't about to break a promise.

Frank Lynch's house came into sight all too soon and Emily prepared herself to give the news. She often witnessed the fall out of a family member hearing the words they never wanted to be spoken but it had been a while since she was the one delivering the blow.

Before she knew it, they were on the doorstep and she was ringing the bell. Her eyes were drawn to the bright red berries in the holly wreath as they waited for a response. It was wrong to be doing this when other doorsteps held family members coming home for the holidays. It was wrong to be giving him this news without an explanation of why or how it had happened.

"Agents," the man greeted them, as he opened the door. "You're back much sooner than I expected."

He was forcing composure but she knew that he was well aware of the reason they were there.

"Mr Lynch, may we come in?" she asked

"It's Frank," he insisted, but showed no sign of moving aside from the doorway.

"Frank," Emily corrected herself. "We need to speak to you."

The man still refused to move, wanting confirmation of what they had found out before he invited them back into his home.

"Is it her?" he asked.

Emily hesitated. It went against everything she would have advised a young agent or officer to have this conversation on a doorstep but she wasn't sure she could leave him without an answer for even a minute longer.

"It is," Rossi confirmed, his tone sombre but sympathetic.

Frank took a breath, steadying himself and nodding towards Rossi in appreciation of his honesty. This time he had been prepared for what was being said but it didn't make it any easier to accept and he remained quiet as he looked beyond the agents to where two children had just clambered out of a car and were now running towards a neighbour's front door.

"You'd better come in," he said at last, his head snapping back to everything he wanted to know.

* * *

There was a fleeting instinct to jump, which JJ managed to avoid, as her pulse slowed to a speed at which she could focus on more than the blood rushing around her body.

She made her way down to the river's edge as carefully as she could, with her eyes always fixed on the girl, afraid that she might slip under if she were to look away. By some stroke of luck, the girl's coat had become tangled in an overhanging branch and her small hands clung onto the nearby rocks to remain as steady as she could in the current.

From here, JJ was even more certain that the child was Hannah Berger. The eyes looking desperately towards her were the same ones that had been smiling out of photo frames all around the Bergers' house.

"It's OK. I'm coming for you," she called, unsure how she'd get there but determined that she would.

She was currently on a small, pebble covered shore, as close to the girl as she could get without being in the water.

Reid had caught up by this time and was just behind her, showing more caution and a slight limp after his tumble but otherwise none the worse for wear.

JJ assessed the river. It didn't seem too deep - that was part of the reason she hadn't jumped - but it was fast moving and she knew that both the depth and current would be less predictable further from shore. From the way Hannah fought to keep her head above the water, she suspected she was either out of her depth or caught in the forceful current.

"If you stay near the edge of the water and hold onto me, I think I'll be able to wade out and reach her," JJ suggested to her colleague.

He didn't like the idea of either of them entering the water but had to admit that the idea of forming a chain was preferable to either of them trying to reach the girl alone.

"If we edge a little further down the shore you'll be in a better position to pull her back in to me and I can lie flat on the bank to keep a better hold of you," he replied, having made his own assessment of the situation. He would be no use to her if she inadvertently pulled him down with her, and that was less likely to happen if he wasn't in the water himself.

They put his plan into action without further hesitation, both of them moving quickly as she carefully stepped into the shallows and he clambered onto the rocks that edged the river bank. The first trickle of water to enter her boots, as she reached the end of dry land and cracked through a thin layer of ice, felt like something was cutting her foot. It was too cold for anyone to survive for long and she was spurred on to keep moving by the terrified whimper which came from Hannah as her grip on the rocks slackened.

"You're going to be OK," she soothed, the water reaching her knees as she inched closer, keeping close to the edge until Spencer could take hold.

Spencer observed her carefully, ready to react should she lose her balance, and waiting for her to come close enough for him to take hold. By the time she was level with him, the chill of the water was around her thighs. He reached out to take a firm hold of her hand, ensuring that as much of his body as possible remained on land. She returned a strong grip, her determination to reach the girl hindered slightly by her realisation of how dangerous the situation could become.

"I've got you," Spencer assured her, as she took another tentative step, feeling the water creep even higher.

The girl seemed further away than they had first assessed and he wasn't sure that they'd be able to reach. JJ realised the same but, despite the thought crossing her mind, she didn't intentionally let go. Not to begin with at least.

It was a strong undercurrent which disrupted her balance and caused her to lose her grip on Reid. By chance, however, as she regained her footing on the shifting silt, she found herself closer to the girl. The sight of the mop of of blonde hair slipping further towards the surface with each second was enough to make her forget her own fear.

Reid knew what she was going to do before she moved.

"JJ," he warned, knowing it was too late but reaching out for her arm all the same.

"I've almost got her," she responded, locking eyes with the girl and giving her a reassuring smile and nod. "It's not too deep here."

She waded further from the river bank, feeling the cold suddenly move upwards to pool around her waist.

"Be careful," Reid pleaded, not liking that she was now on her own, against their plan.

Just a little bit further and then, even if she couldn't get back to shore by herself, she'd be in a position to keep the blonde head above water until back up arrived.

The girl's eyes were closing against the cold.

Just one more step...

Her foot dropped suddenly as the riverbed tricked her again with an unexpectedly steep incline. This time her body followed, dragged straight under water before she could fill her lungs with even a short reserve of air.

She broke the surface quickly, a reflex kicking in to supply her with oxygen while her head stung with what felt like a hundred electric shocks. The water wasn't just cold: it was painful. She coughed, spraying water from her nose and mouth, before she slipped under again, feeling the current pull her just as it had the child. She reached up, in desperate hope that the same over hanging branches might save her, and felt a momentary flash of relief when her fingers closed around the damp wood.

Reid only let himself breathe when he saw her do the same.

In the dim light of the disappearing sun, and with the confusion of trying to right herself, she thought she had drifted further downstream than Hannah. It took a moment to come to the horrifying realisation that the child had gone under around the same time that she had.

"She's still beside you," Reid shouted, now on his feet and searching for a way to get JJ out of the water.

JJ felt the small body bump against her own and pulled it close with her free arm. She was growing tired and it took all her strength to get the girl's head above water.

"I've got you," she breathed, as she focused on keeping the child's mouth and nose where there was a chance of breathing air.

The riverbed beneath her feet wouldn't let her stand upright, but she kicked her legs to keep as much of her own body above the water as she could. As long as she didn't go under again they would be fine.

"Agent Jareau!" another vaguely familiar voice called from the river bank. "Rope!"

Reid wasn't alone anymore and had been joined by some officers from the local police, including Lieutenant Shaw. The Lieutenant was preparing to release the throw line in her direction, and had shouted to ensure she was ready. She wasn't sure that she was but he took her turning towards him as a sign.

The bag landed directly beside her and she knew that she would have to let go of either the branch or the child to take hold. She knew that the safer option, and the one she was supposed to follow, would have been to secure her own position first, but now that Hannah was in her arms she just couldn't let go. With a silent prayer to anyone who might be listening, she released her grip of the branch and let her arm drop to the water, grabbing desperately for the fluorescent material.

Reid's second wave of relief came as he watched her successfully grasp onto the line and swing closer to the shore and to the waiting officers, slightly further down the river.

The remainder of the rescue effort was a blur to JJ. Her mind was foggy with fear and with the cold. She felt the girl being taken from her before she was fully out of the water but, by then, she was struggling to even drag herself out of the knee deep shallows. The hands that reached down to help her belonged to her colleagues, though she wasn't sure when they arrived.

"That was stupid," Rossi chastised, as he pulled her upright and aided her with the final steps onto dry land.

"You can say that again," Emily echoed his anger, her expression only softening to concern as the blonde agent wobbled and needed both Rossi and Reid to catch her.

"I warned you not to let go," Spencer added sounding as upset as he was angry as he tried to steady her shaky steps.

JJ turned her head to where the little girl had been placed, lying flat on her back, in the snow. She would deal with their anger and concern later.

"Is she alive?" she asked, her teeth clinking together involuntarily as she shivered.

One of the police officers beside the unmoving form withdrew his fingers from her neck and started chest compressions.

JJ's heart sank as she realised their efforts may have been in vain.

"I thought I could reach her," she mumbled. "She seemed so close."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and thank you for reading and reviewing the last chapter. Enjoy the next one.**

* * *

The blast of cold air as the door briefly opened was enough to set off another violent bout of teeth chattering. She coughed, her chest feeling too tight to take a proper breath of the freezing air.

"How are you?" Emily asked, sliding into the seat beside her friend and quickly shutting out the cold. She was trying to remain calm but there was no denying that she was still as angry as when JJ had been pulled from the water. If Shaw hadn't had the correct equipment to hand the night could have ended very differently. As a friend she was relieved to see JJ safe in the vehicle, but as a boss she couldn't condone her agent putting herself in that kind of danger in the first place.

The heater was up as high as it could go and the blonde agent was layered in her own dry clothes from her go bag, as well as an assortment of spare jackets and blankets. Yet she was still colder than she could remember feeling before.

"I'm fine," she insisted. "I was in the water for less than five minutes."

"Your lips are blue," Emily responded, dryly.

JJ rubbed her mouth absent-mindedly, hoping that the return of the correct colour would be enough to stop her colleague from worrying. She knew that she would be fine as soon as she got warm again and just wanted to get back to work.

"Is the girl dead?" she asked, giving no more acknowledgement to the other woman's concern.

Emily sighed, knowing she wouldn't get any further until she provided an answer.

"She's too cold for them to pronounce her. The paramedics are taking her into the hospital to warm her up."

JJ shook her head in frustration.

"I slipped. I almost had her but I went under."

Emily placed a sympathetic hand on her arm, her stern approach waning. They'd all had moments when it seemed that they had just missed the save by making one wrong move. Right now there was little that would make JJ feel better about her decisions, but she could look after her physical health.

"I need you to go with them and get checked out," she instructed, firmly, keeping the conversation on its intended track. She understood that JJ would want to get on with tracking down their unsub as quickly as possible, especially now that he may have been responsible for the death of a child, but there was no way that one of her team was returning to work without medical clearance after being fully submerged in ice cold water.

"Em..."

"No arguments. It's not a suggestion."

She paused, trying to remain in her professional role and not to let the panic she had felt when she arrived, just in time to see her friend slip underwater, take over.

"What were you thinking?" she continued, unable to stop herself. "You could have drowned."

"She's a kid and she was terrified," JJ replied, her head back in the moment she lost sight of the green coat and the frightened eyes once again. "I didn't think. I just reached for her." The girl had only been one arm's length away. If only she could have stayed on her feet. "I almost had her."

Emily touched her arm again, this time as a friend leaning in close to offer comfort. In the current situation it wasn't an authoritative boss that JJ needed.

"You did everything you could," she assured her. "That's all you can do."

JJ nodded, indicating she'd heard the words even if she hadn't fully taken them on board.

"JJ, look at me," Emily instructed, more forcefully.

The blonde obliged, turning to face her friend.

"Listen to me. You did everything you could, and even though I can't express just how reckless you were, you gave that girl the only chance she was going to get. Do you hear me?"

"I do," JJ confirmed, trying to get a grip of her own thoughts which were now drifting back to the desperation she had seen on the faces of Hannah's grandparents.

Emily squeezed her arm in a further gesture of support. It would be hypocritical to come down too hard when they both knew she would have done the same.

"Now do I need to order Alvez to carry you to the paramedics or will you come willingly?" the brunette added, her tone lightening.

"I'm coming," JJ agreed forcing a weak smile and pulling her blankets more tightly around her shoulders as she prepared for the oncoming freezing blast from outside to hit. The sooner she got medical clearance, the sooner she could get back to work. And getting on with the case was one step closer to getting home.

* * *

With JJ and Hannah on their way to the hospital, Emily, Reid and Rossi headed back to the police department to join the others. They had joined the police in searching the area around the river for any trace of the unsub, but as they had expected, he was long gone before they even started.

"We have an early Christmas gift for you, great leader," Garcia's voice chirped over the bluetooth system, as Emily answered the incoming call. "A creep who was most definitely a'creepin' on Wendy Randall."

At the delayed response from those in the SUV, she immediately knew that something had happened since they last spoke.

"What's wrong?" she asked, urgently.

"JJ and Reid came across the unsub with Hannah Berger," Emily explained. "There was an incident when they gave chase."

The worried questions came instantly, interrupting before Emily could even offer reasurrance.

"What do you mean an incident? Is everyone OK?"

Emily glanced in the rear view mirror to see Reid, with an ice pack strapped to his rapidly bruising knee and thought of JJ being wrapped in a new layer of blankets as the paramedic fussed over her. They were OK insofar as not having any critical injuries, but she wasn't sure Garcia would see it that way.

"JJ and Reid are fine," she assured her all the same. "JJ's getting checked out at the hospital and Spencer is with us."

"Did you get the unsub and Hannah?" Tara's voice asked, joining the conversation from where she sat beside Garcia.

"He got away," Reid responded. "He let Hannah fall into a river and we had to go after her instead."

He winced slightly as the movement of leaning forward to be heard aggravated the pain in his knee. Crawling around on the frozen river bank hadn't done his injury any favours.

"Did you manage to get to her?" Tara asked. While she had no idea of the exact circumstances, she did know that a rescue from a river, especially in the fading light and in sub zero temperatures, would have been no easy feat.

The silence from her colleagues, as they exchanged glances, confirmed that her assessment was correct.

"JJ managed to reach her," Rossi asked after the lengthy pause. "But the girl had been in the water for a while by the time they were pulled out."

"JJ was in the water?" Garcia questioned, her anxious concern returning as the full extent of the "incident" became clear.

"She'll be fine," Rossi insisted, taking his turn to provide reassurance. "She's just gone to the hospital as a precaution."

"What were you going to say about the creep?" Emily asked, aware that the technical analyst hadn't expanded on her update and eager to make progress rather than dwelling on what had happened so far.

Almost seamlessly, Penelope snapped back from being worried for her friend to focusing on what she, Luke and Tara had found.

"There was an ex-boyfriend that the police dismissed as a suspect at the time the Randall family disappeared. Greg Randall had made a complaint about him hanging around the house about a year earlier, but nothing was done with it. They put it down to him being possessive of his wife and she assured the police that the ex was harmless. The police recorded that he had moved out of the area by 2002 and there was no further reference to him in the old files, but I've managed to pull up some old security footage from the store that overlooks the Randall's old house and there's a man lurking around an awful lot in the months before they vanished."

"Do we have a name?" Emily asked, as she digested the information.

"No name," Garcia replied. "Greg Randall didn't know it and Wendy didn't supply it."

"Did the police have the footage at the time?" Rossi asked, puzzled at how it could have been dismissed without some kind of follow up. So far, despite the investigation being inconclusive, it appeared that it had been thorough.

"The tapes were in the basement but we can't tell if they were ever examined," Luke supplied. "No one here remembers the ex-boyfriend being discussed."

Rossi remained unsure of how something of such potential value as a lead had featured so little in the police reports they had all spent hours examining. The expressions worn by Emily and Spencer confirmed that his colleagues were thinking much the same.

Emily turned the SUV onto the main street into town, now only minutes from the police department. They would need to question why the ex-boyfriend had been considered unimportant at the time, but from what they knew now, he was definitely a person of interest.

"We're almost with you," she told the others. "Can you pull up the footage for us all to take a look?"

"One step ahead of you," Garcia confirmed.

"Thanks, Garcia," Emily replied, ending the call as the police department came into sight.

It had already been a long day, and they were all a bit shaken by what had happened to Hannah and JJ. Emily could feel the exhaustion starting to set in behind her own heavy eyes, and she could see it in the stifled yawns of her teammates. They would need to take a break at some point but with these latest developments that would have to wait a little longer.

* * *

The two hours she spent wrapped in heated blankets in the emergency room seemed like far too long when there was now renewed hope that the rest of the Berger family were still alive and in the area. JJ had been impatient as a seemingly endless succession of doctors and nurses checked her breathing and temperature. The young doctor assigned to treat her was insistent that she be admitted for observation. He was concerned about the risks of secondary drowning, or of her temperature falling further should unsuitable rewarming techniques be used. He reminded her of Spencer - a feature which would normally be comforting - but in this instance just seemed to be delaying her return to the team and the investigation.

In desperation, she had slipped away from the curtained area where she was supposed to wait and rest for a few more hours, to find out what had happened to Hannah since they arrived at the hospital. No one had been able to tell her much, and on the assumption that she wasn't supposed to be a patient herself, she had been directed to a nearby waiting area. Hannah was alive, which was a miracle in itself, but a doctor would need to come out and fully explain the girl's condition.

"Agent Jareau?"

As JJ made her way to the waiting area, she was greeted by Mr and Mrs Lowe, who wore the same anxious but hopeful expressions as when she had first met them. She tucked her own hospital wristband under the sleeve of her sweater to hide it from view. She wasn't sure if it was the best time for the Lowe's to be made aware of the full story of what had happened to their granddaughter and, on a more selfish level, she wasn't sure that she was ready to go over it all.

"Mr and Mrs Lowe," she responded.

"Is it really Hannah? Is she alive?" Mrs Lowe gushed, before JJ had the chance to say anything more.

"It is Hannah," she replied, calmly, as Mrs Lowe grasped her arm, in much the same way as she had done in the snowy yard.

"Is she alive?"

Mr Lowe, who would normally have been quick to hold his wife back and give the agent some space, was just as eager for a response.

"She has severe hypothermia, but she is alive," JJ answered, knowing there was no way that she would be able to sit the grandparents down and wait to update them in a better managed setting. "Her doctor is going to come out to update me when he has the chance. I was heading to the waiting area - why don't you come with me?"

The older woman nodded, stepping back to lean against her husband's waiting arm. They had raced from the house to the hospital, without much time to prepare for what might be waiting for them, as soon as the police had contacted them with news.

"Were you there when she was found?" Mr Lowe asked, as they headed along the corridor.

JJ nodded.

"What happened?" he pressed.

"She fell in the river. We managed to reach her but she was in the water for a while," JJ replied.

"How did she end up in the river? Where did you find her"

The questions hung in the air as JJ considered what had happened. One minute they had been closing in on their suspect and the next his young victim had been falling towards the water. She wasn't sure how to explain how those events came to be connected.

"My partner and I were at the far side of the search zone in the woods when we saw your granddaughter with a man," she began as they reached the waiting area. She indicated to one row of seats and perched opposite the couple as they sat down. "He ran when he saw us and took Hannah with him. She fell near the edge of the water and he let go of her."

The couple were hanging off her every word, as though knowing what had happened would make everything OK.

"We got to her as quickly as we could," JJ assured them, able to tell from their expressions that the rest of the story was clear to them and that she need not go further.

Mr Lowe nodded, confirming that he had taken in what he had been told and indicating his gratitude for their rescue attempt. He grasped his wife's hand, squeezing it tightly.

"She's going to be OK. Hannah's the toughest little thing you'll ever meet," he said, with a weak smile.

As the doctor approached, sombre faced and with a clipboard in hand, JJ hoped he was right. So far, Christmas miracles seemed in short supply.

* * *

The evening hours were slipping away just as quickly as the rest of the day. After reuniting at the police department, Emily, Rossi and Reid had viewed the footage which had been uncovered by the others. They still lacked a name for the man in question, and they still lacked an explanation for why the evidence had been pushed aside by those who had been responsible for the original investigation. Reid, the only team member present who had seen the unsub in the woods, could only confirm that the man in the grainy images was not unlike a younger version of the man he had seen. He couldn't make a positive identification. It was far from conclusive, but what they had agreed was that from his past relationship with Wendy, his local knowledge and his age, the man was the best fit they currently had for their profile.

They had delivered their profile, and the information they held about the mysterious ex-boyfriend, to the local police and received a mixed reception. It had taken Emily some time to convince those who had been with the police department at the time of the Randall family's disappearance that they were not trying to blame anyone for overlooking the CCTV footage. They just needed to move forward with what they now understood.

That led them to where they were now, in the shadow of the same Christmas tree which had guided them into town, and passing out enhanced stills from the footage among the crowd. It seemed wrong to be using the gathering for their own purposes but those in attendance were eager to do anything they could to help.

The glow of candles, illuminating the park was quite some sight to see. It seemed that most of the town, regardless of their faith and regardless of how they were connected to either of the families - be it passing acquaintance or best friend - had turned out to show that the missing, and the recently found, were in their thoughts and prayers. The vigil had been organised as soon as the news of Wendy's body being found had reached the town. It had increased in size and enthusiasm when word spread about Hannah.

"Has anyone you've spoken to recognised him?" Luke asked Tara as their paths crossed after almost an hour outside.

"A couple that went to high school in the same town as Wendy thought his name might be John," she responded.

"The owner of the hunting store said the same," Luke replied.

Garcia approached her colleagues, an armful of candles tucked against her puffy coat. She passed them out and produced a lighter from her pocket.

"It seems right that we should join them," she stated, lighting each candle in turn. "Have you seen Emily?" She had been round the others but was yet to find their unit chief.

"I haven't seen her for a while," Luke answered, looking around the crowd.

"Neither have I," Tara added, trying to recall when she last saw their colleague. "Maybe she's gone back to the police department. I think Lieutenant Shaw left to check on something."

Garcia scanned her eyes over the park one last time before giving up and announcing that she was going to return the lighter to its owner.

"If you see Emily let her know that I have a candle for her," she added.

The others agreed that they would and, already having spoken with many of those in the crowd, took their place to join them in a moment of quiet thought.

By the time Emily reappeared, the team were standing together, towards the back of the crowd. It was getting later and colder, but the locals were showing no sign of leaving yet, and the candles continued to burn bright. The image of the man that they were now calling John had been shown to as many people as they could reach and they had passed the fragments of information they had recovered to the police.

"We all need some sleep," Emily insisted, ordering the team to a halt. It was too dark to be out in the forest and they were too tired to make further progress with the geographical profile. The night shift at the police department were going to follow up on the leads relating to John and there was little more they could do with that particular suspect until he was found. "Lieutenant Shaw has arranged some rooms for us at the inn. We can start again in the morning."

The team showed some initial reluctance at taking a break but after more than 24 hours on the go they all knew that it was needed.

"Have you heard from JJ?" Reid asked as they headed away from the vigil, eager to find out how both his colleague and the young girl were doing. They hadn't heard anything since she had contacted them earlier in the evening to advise them that Hannah was alive.

Emily nodded.

"I've just spoken with her. Hannah is stable, but still in a critical condition. She hasn't woken up yet and is on a ventilator but her temperature is coming up. Her grandparents are at the hospital now."

"And JJ?" Tara asked. "Is she OK?"

"She says she's fine," Emily replied, not sounding completely convinced herself. "I've asked her to meet us at the inn once the doctors are happy for her to leave."

Garcia in particular seemed relieved at the prospect of her friend returning to them soon, and at the news on Hannah.

"And everything with you is OK?" Rossi added, hanging back slightly and catching Emily on her own as the others walked ahead. She had been gone far longer than would have been necessary to get an update from JJ.

"Fine," Emily replied, with a careful expression that gave away nothing. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Rossi raised his eyebrows to indicate his disbelief but kept walking. After years working alongside her, he could tell when Emily was hiding something, but when it came to working out what it was, he still couldn't break through all those compartments to read her.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: It has been a really long time since I managed to cram this much writing into a reasonably short period and I really appreciate the reviews, follows and favs that are giving me some extra motivation. Now it's penultimate chapter time. I hope you are enjoying the story!**

* * *

After failing to close her eyes for even a moment at the hospital, JJ knew she should try to sleep while she had the chance. The others were upstairs in their rooms, grabbing what little rest they could before morning. When she'd arrived at the inn she had headed up to the room she was supposed to be sharing with Garcia, but hadn't even turned the key in the door before heading back downstairs to the residents' lounge. The corridor which the team were occupying had been silent, other than the occasional creak as the building settled under the fresh snow falling outside and the soft snores which came from Rossi's room.

She had hesitated outside of the door, knowing that she would either have to be completely quiet in getting to bed, or put up with her friend making a fuss of her. She was certain that the room allocation had been Emily's way to make sure that she was OK without being seen to be checking up on her. Feeling too restless to stay in bed but being equally unwilling to engage in conversation, she had opted for finding somewhere warm to sit alone.

That had led her to her current position by the fireside in the lounge. Despite being trapped in the hospital until her temperature had risen sufficiently, she still felt that she'd never warm the chill that had set in deep in her bones. She shifted her position closer to the flames, her eyes stinging with the dry heat, but the rest of her body relishing it.

When she left the hospital room, the Lowes had been keeping watch over their granddaughter. She had realised she had nothing more to offer them in their bedside vigil and had slipped away with a quiet promise that she would contact them as soon as they heard anything further on the rest of the family.

Now, back in the same location as the team but still unable to make progress, she didn't know what to do with herself.

"Pen, I don't need another lecture," she warned, as she heard familiar footsteps approaching. "Emily and Rossi have already told me how stupid I was."

Penelope raised her hands in a gesture which indicated that the agent need not be so defensive.

"I just came to see if you were OK," she explained, taking a seat in the chair opposite JJ. She passed a blanket across to her friend. "And to give you this," she added. "I thought you might need it if you were going to sit up all night."

JJ smiled, accepting the blanket, and immediately regretting her tone.

"I'm sorry I snapped," she apologised as she tucked the blanket around her legs and pulled it up to her shoulders.

"Don't worry, sugar," Garcia smiled. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," JJ responded, her pale, tired face rendering the answer unbelievable. "Really," she tried to insist as her friend frowned.

"Nice to see that response hasn't changed," Emily's voice remarked, with a slight edge of sarcasm. She too had been unable to sleep and had heard JJ, and then Garcia, moving around in the hall outside her room. It hadn't taken her long to decide she would join them downstairs. "Don't worry, I don't bring any more judgement - just soup," she added, presenting a flask in much the same way as Penelope had presented the blanket.

JJ's stomach growled at the thought of food. While the others had been provided for when they arrived at the inn, she hadn't had the chance to have more than a cup of tea at the hospital, and even that had only been forced on her as part of the warming process.

"Are you hungry?" Emily laughed at the sound of her friend's stomach.

"Starving," the blonde grinned in response, feeling any threat of tension in her friendship with her boss disappear.

Emily pulled another chair over to the fireplace and joined the others, sitting in comfortable silence. JJ started to eat, finding less need for the blanket as she was warmed from inside. The hazy exhaustion also lifted as the soup gave some strength to her previously empty body.

"How was Hannah doing when you left the hospital?" Emily asked, once JJ had finished. It was one of the many questions which had been running through her mind as she lay in her bed, staring at the wooden beams on the ceiling.

"No change," JJ replied with a frown. It would take her a long time to get the image of the girl, lifeless and surrounded by tubes and wires, from her mind.

"But that's still better than expected," Garcia reminded them, trying to inject some optimism into the situation.

"Yes, the fact she's survived this far is already against the odds," Reid added. "She has as good a chance as any now."

The women looked round to find their teammate standing in the middle of the room, looking slightly dishevelled with his messy hair uncombed since getting out of bed. He was clutching the maps he had been highlighting and annotating throughout the day.

"Couldn't sleep?" JJ asked. With their numbers increasing, it seemed that her thoughtful alone time by the fire was turning into an impromptu team meeting.

Reid shook his head.

"I started plotting out the locations of the buildings Garcia identified, but I think the rustling was disturbing Alvez."

"Come and sit down," Penelope instructed, patting the seat beside her.

He did as he was told, unfolding the largest of the maps to show the others.

"We're still working with an area involving hundreds of square kilometres," he explained. "It's hard to determine the extent of his comfort zone without more than the disposal site, but working on the basis that he needs some access to the nearby towns and is living near where the body was buried, I've been focusing on this area." He pointed to a wide circle. "I've identified 42 buildings within the area so far. Some are obviously inhabited but with others it's difficult to tell."

The data he had complied was impressive, but 42 was still too high a number to start sending teams out to the properties.

"Good work," Emily told him. "We can start eliminating buildings in the morning and narrow down the list. Some of them must be derelict."

"And we might be able to lessen the area once the police get a proper look at the clearing where we saw him with Hannah," JJ added. "He was there for a reason."

At the mention of the unsub, Garcia pulled out her tablet to show her latest handiwork to the others. While waiting for JJ to return from the hospital, she had taken John's image and altered it to age him by 15 years.

"Does this look like the man that had Hannah?" she asked, turning the screen to JJ and then to Reid.

JJ knew she had got the best look at him but she couldn't make a call on whether it was a likeness. Absent mindedly, she rubbed her eyes and tried again to focus.

"I don't know," she responded at last, her frustration evident.

Reid also shook his head, confirming his uncertainty, and making her feel slightly better that it wasn't just her who had failed to miss details.

"Maybe we could try a cognitive interview," JJ suggested. "The man we saw could have had some some distinguishing features that are buried beneath everything else that happened".

Emily didn't allow anyone else to give an opinion before she shot the suggestion down.

"Not tonight," she said firmly. "We already have a possible name and the police are following up on the leads we gained at the vigil. That should be enough to go on for now. You've been under enough stress today and there's no guarantee it would help."

Instead of arguing with Emily, her boss's words caused another idea to spring to JJ's mind.

"The local community have been the biggest source of help since we arrived," she stated, thinking of the volunteers searching the forest and of the information gathered at the vigil in the park. "They know each other and look out for one another. If anyone can help us identify our unsub, whether it's this John, or anyone else, it will be them."

"What are you suggesting?" Emily replied.

"You've already delivered the profile to the police. Why don't we give it to the public as well?" the blonde explained. "If we give a press conference with the local media in attendance then we'll be able to reach all the neighbouring towns."

"There's no tactical advantage to keeping the details quiet," Reid agreed. "The more people we can reach, the more local knowledge and recollection we can use in our favour."

"Are you up to it?" Emily asked the former media liaison. Out of them all she was the obvious choice to address the press and the public, but no one would blame her if she elected to stay behind a desk until they returned to Quantico.

JJ looked a little startled by the question as all eyes were suddenly on her.

"Of course I am," she responded.

Emily was about to question her friend's decision but thought better of it. If JJ was insistent that she was OK then they would have to accept that.

"OK then," she replied. "First thing in the morning we'll get a press conference organised." She glanced at the old grandfather clock in the corner of the room and saw that morning was now not so far away. "But now, we really need to try to sleep for a couple of hours."

Emily's words caught JJ mid-yawn and the unit chief raised her eyebrows pointedly at the obvious example of why she was right.

"Yes, mom," the blonde agreed with a roll of her eyes, untucking the blanket Garcia had given her and getting to her feet. Truthfully, she was now more than ready to lie down.

"You need your rest too," Garcia reminded Emily, as the older woman lingered behind while the others headed for the stairs.

"I'll be up in a minute," she responded, her eyes fixed firmly on her phone. "I just need to check something."

The others exchanged a look of suspicion.

"Sweet dreams," Penelope wished, though her expression was set in a frown as she tried to work out just what was going on with their leader.

* * *

By 9:30am on Christmas Eve, the steps outside of the police department had been turned into a venue for the press conference. The TV cameras were focused and the reporters were ready with their questions. In the centre of it all, JJ addressed those watching, as she slipped effortlessly back into her former role. She had expected to feel nervous, especially as she'd be lying if she said that she hadn't been shaken by the previous day, but all she felt was renewed determination. And it was a feeling that was shared by Emily and Lieutenant Shaw, who stood either side of her.

"We believe that the man we're looking for has spent a large portion of his life in the local area and may have been known to the Randall family," JJ explained. "He will now be in his 40's or 50's and maintain a reasonable level of physical fitness. It's likely that he has always been quiet and distant from social occasions or engagement in the community. This is someone who will have disappeared or been seen very infrequently since December 2002." She paused, turning slightly towards the stand positioned behind them, which displayed the digital mock up of the man from the CCTV footage, aged by approximately 15 years. "The image behind me is of a man we understand to go by the name John. At this stage he is considered by the FBI to be a person of interest and we are looking for any information which may lead to his identity or whereabouts."

"Is he the one that took them?" a reporter in the front row asked, hungry for a juicier headline than the FBI's official statement would provide without creative manipulation.

JJ responded calmly, careful not to sound closed off.

"At this time, he is a person of interest in the investigation into the Randall and Berger families' disappearances. We are also appealing for information on any other individuals who may fit the description we have issued." She looked directly into the camera lens again. "A tip line has been set up and we are urging anyone who may be able to assist to come forward."

"Lieutenant, why has it taken 15 years for you to find a suspect?" another voice shouted from the crowd, his interest lying with the local police rather than the outsiders.

Shaw swallowed uncomfortably but showed no further hesitation in defending his department. They had been prepared for the press conference to take this turn. Briefed by JJ, he kept his answer short and clear.

"All viable leads were followed up at the time of the Randall family's disappearance. With the help of the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit we now have new information and are moving forward accordingly."

"Can you confirm that the body found yesterday is Wendy Randall?" came the third question.

"We can confirm that the body found yesterday is connected to our investigation but are unable to comment further at this time," JJ responded, diplomatically. They needed to wait for the DNA results before that information could be made public and, while it seemed ridiculous to be making no comment when most of the town knew as much as they did, it was one aspect of protocol which they were bound to follow.

The press conference drew to an end after several more questions, all in a similar same vein, were posed to them and either answered or deflected as needed. Heading back inside, they knew that they'd done everything they could.

"Do you think it will do any good?" Shaw asked, holding the door for the two agents.

"I hope so," JJ responded. "Local knowledge is our best shot at finding the unsub and the missing families."

"Thank you for not throwing us to the wolves over the 2002 investigation," the Lieutenant added. Despite having had no involvement with the original investigation, it was weighing heavily on his mind that a potential suspect had been missed by his predecessors.

"We can't be sure that it was him and there must have been a good reason that he wasn't prioritised at the time," Emily assured him. She certainly didn't have the impression that this had ever been a sloppy department.

"You have my full assistance in finding out why that was," he responded, sincerely. "I'll check in with you after I've updated the Chief," he promised, dashing off to his office with the same urgency he had displayed since their arrival.

Emily rubbed her eyes as he left them alone in the corridor. The burst of adrenaline which had accompanied the busy morning was coming to an end but there was still so much more to do. No doubt, an earful from the Chief would only increase the pressure on Shaw, and then also on the team. This was not how Christmas Eve was supposed to be spent and certainly not how she had planned it only days earlier.

"I'll grab some coffees before we join the others," JJ offered, her friend's flagging energy not going unnoticed.

Emily smiled, at once immensely grateful for the people stuck with her in the least festive Christmas she had ever experienced.

"I'm really glad you didn't drown last night," she told the blonde, smiling teasingly, but revealing the slightest hint of sincerity.

* * *

While the press conference took place, Reid, Rossi and Tara had headed up to the forest to follow up on the latest discovery by the police. At first light the local police had searched the clearing where the unsub and Hannah had first been seen the night before. Partially buried tyre tracks had led them to where it seemed the unsub had parked up before he'd been spotted and then forced to abandon his truck.

 _"You can tell a lot about a person from their contents of their car,"_ Reid had remarked as they made their way to the scene.

Now, as they stood around the truck, the contents just posed more questions.

"What does a Christmas tree and a stack of presents strapped to the back of a pick-up tell you?" Rossi responded, highlighting the most obvious features of the vehicle with an edge of sarcasm to his voice. "Santa Claus is too old to fit our profile."

The saw and axe beside the tree, and the fresh stump nearby, made it clear that it had recently been felled, and the presents, though dusted in snow, looked neatly wrapped and ready to sit under the tree.

"Could he have been preparing for Christmas?" Reid suggested, choosing to ignore the other man's tone. "We know that he kept Wendy Randall alive for almost 15 years. Maybe his care for his victims extends to recreating a normal life for them."

It was a weird thought, that somewhere in the woods the unsub was creating Christmas for his victims, but it wouldn't have been the strangest thing they had ever seen.

"It would be another sign that his intention isn't to inflict harm on them," Tara added. "We still have a good chance of finding them alive."

"But his plans have been disrupted," Rossi reminded them. "If he isn't able to follow through with this original intentions then that increases the risk to his victims."

Reid crouched by the rear wheels of the truck, examining the treads. The urgency with which they required to locate exactly where the unsub was holding the families was only increasing as the investigation started to close in on him. With a gloved finger, he brushed off a frozen layer of snow to reveal the compacted dirt beneath.

"Soil analysis might help narrow down where the truck has been and we should be able to get fingerprints from inside," he suggested.

The crime scene unit were still working in the area. They had already dusted for fingerprints and confirmed that they would send images to Garcia to speed up the process of finding a match. On Spencer's suggestion, they also took samples from each wheel.

"We should get back into town and update Emily," Rossi advised, as they finished surveying the scene. There wasn't much more they could do until the results were back or until they got a match from the fingerprints, but there was the possibility of information from the tip line coming in and needing processed. They would all be of more use at the police department than out in the forest. And, if he was lucky, he might even get the feeling back in his toes.

* * *

It had taken Officer Edwards far longer to find Emily than she had anticipated. She had checked the conference room, where the rest of the team had reunited, and she had checked with Lieutenant Shaw, who was engaged in meetings with the officers who had been with the department in 2002, but no one had any suggestions. In the end, she had found the agent in an empty office, not far from where her search began.

"Agent Prentiss, there's someone out at the front desk asking for you," the officer announced, before looking apologetic that she had disturbed the agent during a phone call.

Emily nodded towards her to confirm that she had received the message and made it clear that she did not mind the interruption. She quickly ended her conversation and followed after the officer.

"Frank?" she said, surprised to see the man waiting for her just beyond the desk. "Is everything OK?"

As she approached him, she noticed just how uneasy he looked. Given the news he had received, and the unknown status of his son-in-law and grandchildren, it wasn't unexpected. However, she immediately got the impression that there was something more.

"Is there somewhere we can talk?" he asked, reluctant to speak in the open.

"Of course," she replied, glancing around to identify an empty interview room. The officer manning reception nodded towards a small room to her right. "Just follow me through here."

Frank headed towards the room as directed, but to Emily's surprise, a younger man, who had until then been sitting quietly in the corner of the reception area, also followed.

"This is John March," Frank explained, before Emily could question his identity. "I understand you want to speak to him."

It took everything she had not to overreact to the news and tackle John to the ground to stop him from escaping. It hadn't even crossed her mind that he would show up right under their noses or of his own free will. The fact that he was with the father of their victim only served to throw her further.

"Right this way," she directed him, recovering quickly from her surprise. "Thank you for coming in."

Once inside, Frank immediately began to explain himself, shifting awkwardly in the hard plastic chair as he did so.

"I'm sorry," he began. "But you have to understand that Wendy was everything to me. I had to protect her, even after she was gone."

Emily's eyes flicked between the two men, not yet catching on to what the elder of the two was trying to tell her.

"But then I saw the news this morning," he continued. "I couldn't have you going after an innocent man."

She recalled his hesitation when she and Rossi had spoken with him the previous day. This was what he hadn't wanted to say.

"Go on," she prompted, now piecing together the situation, but needing to hear it from the men themselves.

"John and Wendy dated when she was in high school. They met again, after she was married. She wasn't the kind of girl that would cheat on her husband, but Greg made her so unhappy. She just needed someone to make that better." He was struggling to say it, even now he had no choice.

"We were having an affair," John confirmed, taking over to say the words that made the older man so uncomfortable but that Emily had already guessed.

"I told the old Lieutenant," Frank continued. "Back when they disappeared. I didn't hide it," he insisted. "I knew it wasn't John and Lieutenant Charles knew it too. He'd known John since he was a teenager."

It made sense now. There was a reason for him hanging around near the Randall's house and for Wendy's lack of co-operation in respect of her husband's complaint. And while it wasn't a reason which reflected well on the now retired Lieutenant, she could explain why the investigation had taken the route that it had in the past.

"I loved her," John insisted. "I would never have hurt her."

"Did Greg know?" Emily asked, attempting not to let Frank or the old Lieutenant's views sway her own perception, but seeing no reason to doubt the man.

"I think he had his suspicions," Frank replied.

"And that's why you thought it was him," Emily connected, as the old man wiped his eyes with a shaky hand.

"I'm so sorry," he apologised again. "I thought he'd killed them all. I didn't think it would make any difference, and Charles said they couldn't prove it was him without the bodies. If I'd known they were still alive..."

Emily found herself torn between sympathy for the man, and frustration that in protecting his daughter's reputation he had hindered their investigation. If tge truth had been out in the open 15 years ago then they might not even be looking at a second abducted family. However, regardless of her feelings, now that the information had come to light it was more important to stop any further delays than to dwell on what might have been.

"I need to speak with my team and let them know," she told them, excusing herself and making sure that there was an officer keeping an eye on the room. The men would need to give full statements. This time, their evidence couldn't just be swept away.

As Emily rushed towards the conference room, she was met by Garcia heading the opposite direction with just as much urgency. The technical analyst's heels clicked along the floor at increasing speed.

"John isn't the unsub," Emily announced as they reached one another.

"I know," Garcia responded. It seemed that the team had also been making progress. "There was only one set of fingerprints on the steering wheel of the truck and..." she trailed off. "Wait, how did you know it wasn't him?"

"He's in reception," Emily explained. "He showed up with Frank Lynch." She stopped her own explanation and urged the other woman along as she realised the importance of the information her colleague held. "Whose fingerprints are in the truck?" she asked, already suspecting the answer.

Garcia didn't hesitate. After almost two long days, it seemed the answers were finally falling into place.

"Greg Randall. It's him. It was always him."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: And we're finally at the end of the story! I hope you've enjoyed reading it and that the last chapter was worth waiting a few days into 2018. Thanks for reading and reviewing, and Happy New Year!**

* * *

"The death of his wife would have been a huge trigger," Rossi commented. "Especially if his intention in taking his family was to keep them together."

They had finished interviewing Frank Lynch and John March and were gathered in the conference room once again, adjusting the profile now that they had identified the man they were hunting and had a better understanding of the background to his crimes.

"He could be recreating the family that he wanted to hold onto," Tara added. "With his children growing up and then the loss of his wife, everything would have changed."

Her theory seemed to make sense, particularly given the similarities between the two families.

"What would that mean for Sam Berger?" JJ frowned, as she thought of the one person who would be surplus to the equation.

"As far as we know, Greg hasn't killed anyone, but having a younger, stronger man around is a risk to his plan. He might even see Sam as a surrogate for John March. How he reacts to the threat will depend on how quickly he's devolving," Emily replied.

"How are you getting on with the geographic profile?" Rossi asked Reid and Garcia, who had now pinned the maps to a notice board.

Without his truck, Greg Randall would have required to return to wherever he was based on foot and that shrunk the number of possible locations. From this information and from the proximity of Wendy's grave to the clearing where his truck had been found, as well as to the main road, they had re-adjusted the wide circle to one that was much smaller.

"I don't think we'll be able to get much further with the profile alone, but I've been reading up on the local flora and fauna and the soil analysis should be able to help," Spencer responded. He produced another copy of the map, this time with the areas divided according to the predominant plant and soil types. "There's a clear distinction between the plant life around the river, and that on the higher ground. There are also some rare varieties of evergreens on the West side of the valley that aren't found elsewhere."

As the others were struggling to keep running, even on multiple cups of coffee, it seemed that the latest research task had given him a new lease of life.

"The results are being rushed," Penelope confirmed, knowing that everyone was just as impatient as she was to move forwards. "They're going to come straight to us and our wonder kid as soon as the lab have them."

Emily looked around at her team and at the stack of interview transcripts and details of tip line calls which had been provided for them. They might be waiting on the lab results, but they had a lot they could be doing to get a deeper understanding of their suspect in the meantime. Even once they had enough information to locate him, they would need a strategy for the approach and take-down.

"It's going to be another long night," she told them. "If anyone needs a break then I want you to take it." The team would be no use if they were burnt out by morning. She waited for any of them to take her up on the offer.

"I'm good," JJ answered, with a shake of her head as Emily's eyes came to rest on her.

"Me too," Garcia insisted, tipping her double shot latte in her boss's direction.

"We'll let you know if we do," Rossi assured her.

Christmas day was approaching quickly and the responses she received were only what she had expected. They had all been working towards the self-imposed deadline and this was the last push to be reunited with their families before the end of the day.

* * *

Morning came around after a night just as long as Emily had predicted. Determined to make progress, they had pushed onwards well into the early hours before taking it in turns to rest for short periods of time.

"Do you think he brought them back because he knew she was dying?" Tara asked, attempting to make sense of the information they had pieced together from the calls to the tip line. They had received several calls from a neighbouring town regarding sightings of a man fitting their profile over the past few months, but not before then.

"If he had moved them away from the area in 2002, and only recently returned, that would explain how he's managed to keep them hidden, and why the investigation went cold," Emily responded, keeping her voice low as she realised that both Spencer and Garcia had fallen asleep. Throughout the night, they had been working the hardest of anyone with the amount of data which had to be processed, and it was only in the last 10 minutes that they had finally closed their eyes.

Rossi pulled up the images Garcia had obtained from a gas station where one of the possible sightings took place and compared it to a digitally aged image of Greg Randall for a third time. For a third time, he was convinced that it was a match.

"He's not even hiding," he commented. "He either knows how unlikely it would be that he'd be recognised, or he doesn't think he has any reason to hide. He could believe he's done nothing but protect his family over the years."

At the sound of the door opening, the discussion paused as they turned to see what was going on. They were on edge, waiting for the last pieces of evidence which could be put together with their profile to help them find Greg Randall. They relaxed slightly as they realised it was JJ returning from a brief phone call to her family.

"Will finally got the boys to bed around 11:30," she updated them, as she returned to the room and slipped into her previous seat beside Spencer. "And then they were back out of bed to see if Santa had been at 5am." She forced herself to keep her tone light and not to dwell on the fact that hearing the sounds of Christmas morning with her boys from a distance felt like a punch in the gut. With the sudden shift of attention towards her she was especially keen not to become emotional again.

"Joy had a similarly short night's rest and apparently my house is full of torn up wrapping paper," Rossi replied, having stepped out to have a similar conversation with his own family around an hour earlier. Knowing how he was feeling after the call, he was impressed at how well JJ was holding it together.

With a sharp beep, an alert received to Garcia's laptop pulled the device and its owner from their light sleep. The technical analyst sat upright from where she had been slumped across the table and straightened her glasses.

"Results are in," she announced, sleepily, as her eyes adjusted to focus on the screen. "Reid?"

Spencer, who had fallen asleep with his legs hanging over one side of his chair, and his neck lolling back like a newborn's over the other side, had not yet stirred.

"Spence," JJ called quietly, placing her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to wake him gently. "The results are back from the lab."

He opened his eyes, blinking rapidly at first as he was momentarily confused by his surroundings. Her hand remained on his arm until he was oriented to the room again.

"Garcia has the soil analysis results," she repeated, as his expression turned to one of recognition.

Just like Penelope, he righted himself quickly, rubbing his eyes and coming to life. The results had already been forwarded to his tablet and he opened the document, skimming over the information with the combination of speed and accuracy that only he could manage.

" _Asplenium trichomanes_ ," he announced, jumping to his feet and turning to the annotated maps while the others looked on, one step behind him. His expression became animated as he pieced together the puzzle and all traces that he had just woken up were gone.

"Help us out, kid," Rossi prompted, reminding him that he was the only one privy to what seemed to be a significant development.

"There was a high concentration of Maidenhair Spleenwort spores in the sample taken from the wheels of Randall's truck," he expanded.

"The plant you told us about last night?" Emily guessed, as he pointed towards one area of the map, which had been outlined in dark green.

"It's a rare fern found in shady, rocky areas and only documented in this area of the forest," he continued, nodding to confirm that she was correct.

"Are there any buildings or shelters in the area?" JJ asked.

Garcia took the lead this time, her fingers tapping quickly over her keyboard as she ran through the data she had compiled over the course of the previous 24 hours.

"There's a hide used in the summer by conservationists for surveying the local wildlife, and there's a cabin that's been lying empty for years," she replied.

"Assuming his children, and the rest of the Berger family are still alive, the hide would be too small," Luke thought aloud. "Do we know anything more about the cabin?"

Garcia returned her attention to her laptop screen.

"It's still owned by a retired businessman, Peter Sullivan, from New York, but he is now 97 and living in a nursing home. He has no surviving family so I doubt it's been used in recent years," she responded.

"How long will it take us to get up there?" Emily asked. They had been waiting for this break all night and now she needed to get the team, and the other law enforcement officers, mobilised as quickly as possible.

"About 25 minutes by road and another 5 on foot," Spencer replied, quickly carrying out the calculation in his head. He had spent so much time studying the terrain and layout of the forest that he was sure he'd have known the answer even if it wasn't for his eidetic memory.

"Let's go," Emily ordered. "I'll find Shaw on the way out to bring him up to speed."

* * *

The cabin was overgrown with foliage on the outside, and the shutters were all nailed closed. If it hadn't been for the smoke coming from the chimney, and the infrared cameras detecting the warm outlines of people inside, they would have assumed it was abandoned. They approached with weapons drawn, unsure of the vantage point which would be offered to anyone who was keeping watch from inside.

"Lewis and Rossi, cover the outside with the second SWAT team," Emily instructed. "The rest of us will go inside. Remember, our aim is to stop this turning into a hostage situation."

Signalling to the local officers who would be accompanying them inside, she led them closer to the front door, hanging back only when the heavily armed SWAT team were ready to breach the property.

With a crash as the door was kicked open, and the loud shouts of the SWAT team announcing themselves, their previously quiet approach came to an end.

As the team entered the room, several frightened faces turned to face them.

"Where's Greg Randall?" Alvez questioned, lowering his weapon as he approached.

All the agents who had entered the property had been momentarily surprised by the sight before them. The occupants of the room were sat around a large table piled with plates of food, and with a display of candles and holly at its centre. In the corner, stood a fir tree decorated with twinkling, coloured lights and an assortment of glass baubles and hand-made clay ornaments. If they hadn't recognised the faces looking back at them as the remaining members of the two missing families then they would have thought they'd interrupted a normal Christmas meal.

It was Laura Berger who was the first to find her voice and direct the agents.

"Upstairs," she whispered. "He's got George with him."

While JJ and Reid quickly and quietly herded those from downstairs out of the building, Emily and Luke crept carefully towards the narrow wooden staircase. As they made their way upstairs, they could hear movement and voices from above.

"It's not Christmas if there isn't a star on the tree," Greg was explaining to the boy. "I can't believe I forgot it." He rummaged through the cardboard boxes and encouraged the boy to do the same.

George was the first to spot the star and he lifted it carefully from the box, too anxious around the man to speak, but also too afraid to ignore his task. He held it in his hands, waiting for the man to notice. By then, the agents were positioned on either side of the open door.

"Good job, Cody," Greg praised him.

Emily and Luke shared a look which confirmed they had both noticed the use of his son's name.

"Let's get it down to your mom," the man continued, as the agents waited outside.

Reluctant to lead with a gun when there was a young child between them, Emily holstered her weapon and signalled to Luke to hang back and cover her. She stepped into the room slowly, aware of the man's delusional state and not wishing to startle him.

"My name's Emily," she said, when his eyes came to rest on the stranger in the room.

Greg wrapped an arm round the little boy, who was still clutching the star and had been standing at his side. To Emily's relief, his hold on the child appeared protective rather than threatening.

"Who are you? What are you doing in my house?" he demanded.

"I'm just here to check that you and your family are OK," she assured him. "Everyone's been worried about you."

"We're fine," he insisted, though her presence was clearly agitating him further. "We just want a quiet Christmas to ourselves, isn't that right, Cody?" he added, looking down at the boy.

George's lip trembled but he remained unable to speak.

"Is that the star for the tree?" Emily asked, turning her attention to the boy, in the knowledge that Luke would be watching Randall.

George nodded. He didn't know who this woman was, but he felt safer with her than with the man who had taken them all out here.

"Why don't you take it downstairs?" she suggested, smiling reassuringly at him.

The boy stepped away from his captor, as the man's confusion caused him to momentarily relax his hold. Realising he had a chance to get away, he quickened his steps towards Emily, and towards the door. Greg realised what was happening and lunged forwards to grab the boy, but Emily was quicker off the mark and beat him to it.

"Give me my son!" he demanded, his confusion moving towards anger.

Emily backed further away, keeping the boy tightly in her arms.

"He's not my dad," the boy mumbled, just loud enough for her to hear.

"I know, sweetie," she assured him, as Luke entered the room with his weapon drawn and directed at the man.

"Greg, you need to let Emily take him downstairs," he told him, calmly, as Greg was halted in advancing closer to the agent and the child by the sight of the gun. "I know you don't want him to get hurt."

He backed off at the agent's words, letting Emily leave the room and pass George to a waiting officer on the stairs. When she returned, the man was still staring back at Luke and his gun, searching for a way out of the situation. His eyes darted round the room, revealing a mixture of confusion and increasing anger. Without warning, he lunged forwards and into Emily. She didn't have time to react as she fell backwards to the ground, coming down hard on her right shoulder and gasping as she made contact with the ground.

It seemed that he hadn't been as willing to let the boy go as he had first appeared.

"Where did you take him?" he pressed, leaning heavily on her chest and shoulders and showing her a hint of the physical strength and aggression which had allowed him to carry out the abductions. She tried to fight against his hold but wasn't in a position where she had any leverage over his form.

It only took a moment for Luke and the officers backing them up to step in and drag him off her. Rolling over into a position where she was now in control, she reached for her handcuffs and fastened them around his wrists with a satisfying click. It wasn't the most elegant of arrests, but the job was done.

"Are you good?" Luke asked, helping her to her feet.

She dusted herself off, and leaned forwards as she caught her breath.

"Never better," she replied, watching the uniformed officers pull the handcuffed man to his feet and lead him away.

* * *

The precinct was the quietest it had been in days and only the staff required to cover essential tasks remained. Most of those involved in the investigation had now returned home to their slightly delayed Christmas celebrations.

The Berger family had been taken to the hospital, to be checked over and reunited with their daughter. It appeared that Sam had taken a few punches but, otherwise, the family were in good shape. JJ and Reid had gone with them to obtain the remaining information they needed regarding the abduction. Rossi and Tara were also interviewing Greg Randall to tie up their involvement with the case before handing it back to the locals, and the others were packing up the contents of the conference room.

Emily stood in the centre of the bullpen, leaning against an empty desk as she absent mindedly rubbed her shoulder. It had taken a battering when she had been tackled to the ground, and she was sure that an impressive bruise was forming, but just like with Reid and JJ, she knew that it could have been much worse. She was watching Ellie and Cody Randall, who had given the first of what would likely be many statements and were now waiting by the vending machine for someone to tell them what to do or where to go. They were adults and in any other circumstances would have been free to do as they pleased, but after 15 years under the control of their father, and with limited interaction with the outside world, re-adapting to normal life would take some time.

"Agent Prentiss?" a now familiar voice addressed her, pulling her from her thoughts.

Frank Lynch stood beside her, wearing the same apologetic look as when he had confessed the truth about his daughter's affair. While there would be an investigation into the previous Lieutenant's decision to bury the information, it seemed that no charges would be brought against Frank himself. Emily knew that would do nothing to ease the guilt he carried.

"How are you doing?" she asked, her sympathy for the man now winning over any other feeling towards him.

He gave a small shrug in acknowledgement of her question, but was too focused on his grandchildren to respond further.

"They're all grown up," he breathed. " In my head they stayed small. I didn't think of them changing or growing."

His lip trembled as he fought back tears.

Emily took hold of his hand and squeezed it tightly in her own. She thought of all the victims for whom that would have been true. All the families for whom the end of an investigation meant the end of any hope for future memories to be made. Despite his guilt, she hoped he could see that there was the possibility of a future.

"They're home now," she told him. "Come with me and see them. They've been asking about you."

She let go of his hand and started to lead the way across the bullpen to where the two young adults were sitting quietly, sipping cans of coke.

He hesitated again, worrying that they wouldn't know who he was, but soon realised that he had been seen.

"Grandpa?" Ellie questioned, her eyes wide with shock and her brother's expression quickly changing to look the same. His memories of his grandfather weren't as clear but it didn't take long for him to recognise the man.

"Merry Christmas," Frank blurted out, unsure of the appropriate greeting after such a long period of time.

Ellie got to her feet first, wrapping her arms around her grandfather with the same awkwardness and lack of warning as his words. When they finally broke apart, Cody was waiting to do the same.

"Look at you both," Frank smiled, glancing from one to the other. "Just look at you."

As a tearful smile worked its way across her own face, Emily retreated back to her previous position to give them some privacy.

"Are you crying?" Luke asked as he approached his colleague, the surprise evident in his voice.

She blew out a breath through her pursed lips and gave herself a shake.

"Of course not," she replied. "I just tweaked my shoulder," she added, wiping away any residual moisture as she provided an alternative explanation for her watery eyes. "What have you got?"

Luke hid his smirk as best he could and continued.

"JJ just called. Hannah's breathing on her own - the doctors think she's going to make it."

"That's great news," Emily responded, her gaze drifting almost involuntarily back to the reunion taking place at the other side of the room.

It wasn't turning out to be such a terrible Christmas after all.

* * *

By the time the loose ends had been tied up, and the team had reunited at the precinct, day had turned to dark night once again. They were outside the police department, bundled up as warm as was possible. It had started snowing again around half an hour earlier but any sense of magic in the idyllic winter surroundings was lost on them after days of sub-zero temperatures and time spent working outside.

"We've hardly slept since getting here. I want you all to get some rest before we start heading home," Emily instructed, as they headed back to the inn.

Unlike the previous night, no one was arguing with the suggestion of sleep. There were still a good few hours of Christmas day left, but even if they left right that moment, it would be late at night before they arrived in DC. They all knew that there was nothing else to be done before morning.

By any account, the case had gone well. Six victims had been reunited with their families and a seventh could be laid to rest. It wasn't often that they got successes like that, but their mood remained low as they crunched their way along the white street. They were of course relieved by the positive outcome, but it was difficult to celebrate when they had made so much personal sacrifice to be there.

It was only as they approached the inn that the atmosphere started to grow lighter. The windows at the side of the building were fogged up and thrown open to cool down the kitchen, despite the outside temperature. Cooking smells drifted out, reaching them before they were even level with the front entrance.

"Is that turkey?" Reid asked, as they grew nearer.

"You look like Roxy," Luke laughed, as his colleague continued to sniff the air.

The barking of a dog, at the mention of her name, spooked Luke for a second, but the feeling quickly turned to joy as his faithful companion bolted towards him from the grounds at the back of the inn.

"Hey, girl," he greeted her, his joy at the unexpected reunion momentarily overcoming his surprise at seeing her.

"You were supposed to be holding the leash!" Will's voice shouted, as he, Michael and Henry quickly followed after the dog.

JJ's expression soon mirrored the delight of her colleague.

"Are you sure you're wrapped up enough?," Will commented with a laugh, as they finally came together and he struggled to hold her close. "Are you OK?" he asked, turning serious as she pulled away and he noticed her paler than normal skin. She shifted Michael from her husband's hold into her own arms.

"I'm fine," she assured him, pulling Henry into a hug and running her hand through his hair, before pressing another kiss to Michael's forehead. All thoughts of the river were now far behind her and replaced with those of her family. The story of what had happened during the case was for another day.

"Merry Christmas, Mom," Henry told her.

"Merry Christmas," she replied, with her most genuine smile in days. "I've missed you."

"We've missed you too," Will replied, grinning as JJ completed another round of hugs and kisses, before Michael wriggled down from her arms and the boys darted off to perform the more interesting duty of welcoming their god parents. Their squeals of delight echoed as Reid and Garcia greeted them with just as much enthusiasm as they had received from their mother.

"Grandpa!" shouted Kai, now that the secret was out of the bag and he had been released from his dad's grip.

Rossi scooped the boy into his arms, holding him close as though he feared it was all some sort of hallucination induced by lack of sleep.

"How?" he asked, as Hayden, Joy and Shawn joined the reunion.

"We went on the plane," Kai answered before any of the adults got the chance. "Even Roxy!"

"He's had the best Christmas ever," Joy smiled, wrapping her arm around her father to get in on the hug. "But I think we might need to get him a dog of his own."

Tara was the last to be surprised, as her brother made his way towards her.

"Hey, T," Gabriel smiled, opening his arms to greet her. "You've got a pretty special team here."

She returned his smile and his embrace.

"Merry Christmas, Gabriel," she replied. "I definitely do."

While the others were preoccupied with their relatives, Emily slipped off to make another of the private phone calls which had taken up any spare moment she had found over the past few days. As she walked back and forth at the edge of the grounds, she finally felt herself start to relax.

"Merry Christmas," she smiled when the call connected. "Thank you for everything. You don't know how much this means to me."

* * *

The inn wasn't used to holding so many guests at once, and its dining room wasn't equipped to have so many people around the table. Chairs had been brought in from other rooms, leading to everyone being positioned at different heights around the table. Even the food was formed of a mismatch of traditions brought along by each family or supplied by the owners of the inn.

However, no one could have cared less about the imperfections of the evening. The previously exhausted team had come to life now that they were surrounded by those they had so desperately wanted to spend the day with. As the drinks flowed, and their plates were piled high, and presents were passed around the table, the atmosphere was no different than any happy household at Christmas.

"Was this your doing?" Rossi asked when he managed to get Emily alone. He knew there weren't many people with the power or money to charter a plane on Christmas day. It hadn't been him, as some of the others seemed to suspect, but he had a suspicion that the Prentiss family had the right connections to pull it off.

She shrugged and smiled knowingly.

"My mother always asks what I'd like for Christmas. This year I decided to try for more than a badly fitting cashmere sweater."

Rossi raised his glass of wine and clinked it gently against hers. He knew that, despite her flippant attitude, it must have taken a lot for Emily to ask a favour of her family when she normally made such a point of leading an independent life.

"To your mother," he toasted.

"To my mother," she echoed. "The unexpected saviour of Christmas. I'm sure she won't remind me of that on every possible occasion for the next decade."

Rossi chuckled lightly as she rolled her eyes, but a tugging at his sleeve soon redirected his attention.

"Grandpa, come and see," Kai demanded, dragging him towards the corner of the room, where Henry had helped him to set up his train set.

"I'm coming!" he insisted, wrapping his fingers around the boy's and allowing himself to be led away with no irritation at the interruption.

"Emily, we're short a player - come and join us!" Garcia called from the other side of the room, where some of the adults were gathered around a rather dusty and faded edition of "The Game of Life". There was no chance of anyone being left alone for long tonight.

On turning towards her friends she became aware of the reason they needed to substitute someone into the game. Will had fallen asleep in the time that had passed since his last turn and was now slumped against the side of his armchair. With everything he'd been juggling in JJ's absence, it seemed that even the festive atmosphere wasn't enough to keep the detective awake.

"The boys have finally worn him out," JJ smiled, eyeing Michael, who was currently watching Spencer with a look of wonder as he made a Christmas bauble disappear and reappear, and Henry, who was teaching Kai how to operate the signals on the train tracks. "It seems a shame to wake him."

"I think he's just trying to save face," Emily suggested, as she assessed the situation of the game and realised she had stepped into the losing position.

Garcia grinned cheekily, sipping her drink as Emily worked out what the rest of them had already known.

"If you can't take the heat, then maybe its time to play with the children," she taunted.

"Just wait. She's going to lose that lead soon," Tara reassured the newcomer to the game.

JJ laughed, as she returned to her seat, having tucked a blanket around her sleeping husband. She was used to mediating the fights that came with family board games and could see those skills being required in the very near future.

* * *

By the time the children fell asleep - first Michael, still clutching the magical Christmas bauble for fear that it would disappear again, then Kai, with his tired head leaning against this grandfather's shoulder, and finally Henry, who chose to share a corner of the room with an equally exhausted Roxy - it was well past midnight.

"Come on, Henry," JJ whispered, stroking her eldest son's hair and gently wakening him. She already balanced a dozing Michael on her hip and had decided it was time that they went to bed.

"No Grandpa, I'm not sleepy," Kai protested, as Rossi took his colleague's cue and tried to move him upstairs as well. During any other occasion, the agent would have been placed with the adults, drinking Scotch and considering the appropriate time for a cigar, but tonight he was treasuring the family time that he would once have missed. "Can we have a sleepover?" his grandson mumbled, changing his pleas as he became aware that the other boys were also being put to bed.

"I think that can be arranged," he assured the boy, grinning at JJ as Kai's face lit up once again.

Given the excitement of the day, all three boys went down without a fight and it wasn't long before they were all sound asleep on the camp beds set up in one of the bedrooms. Happy to let the team make the most of their evening, and having already spent the day with his family, Shawn had volunteered to take the first shift of staying with them.

"I didn't get a chance to tell you that you were right," JJ remarked, as she and Rossi made their way back downstairs to join the others.

"About what?" Rossi replied.

"The season of miracles," she answered.

He smiled as he recalled the conversation they'd had on the plane. He was always willing to accept he had been proven right, even if this time he was sure that it was more likely the earthly hard work and determination which had brought them to where they were now.

"We're not quite home," he commented, sure that none of them had planned to spend the holiday in a small inn, over 1,000 miles from DC.

They entered the dining room and looked around at Will, who was still drooling on the armchair, and at Hayden and Joy gossiping by the fire. They watched Luke reach down to rub Roxy's ears, as he and Gabriel shared stories. And they took in the relaxed smiles on the faces of Tara, Emily and Penelope as another game came to an end and they topped up their glasses with the remaining wine.

"No," JJ replied. "But we're close enough."


End file.
